14 FEATHERED FRIENDS, 



molitor, to give the mealworm its scientific title, and 

 the bird-room or aviary is scarcely warm enough in 

 winter for the creeping delicacy of which such birds 

 as the Starling are so immoderately fond. It thrives 

 best in a bakehouse, where it finds plenty of warmth 

 and moisture as well as food, but since the passing of 

 the Acts relating to those places it is rarely met with 

 in this country and has to be imported from the con- 

 tinent where the conditions for its propagation are not 

 interfered with by any Sanitary Authority. 



Still, in case anyone should like to try and cultivate 

 his own mealworms, I have found the following plan 

 answer fairly well. Take a barrel, or a box, of con- 

 venient size, and line it for about four inches down 

 from the top with smooth tin or glass, in order to 

 prevent the grubs, or caterpillars, from crawling up : then 

 half fill the receptacle with a mixture composed of 

 equal parts of chaff and meal of some kind, or of 

 " middlings", but bran is no good ; introduce a thousand or 

 two full-grown mealworms, or a hundred or so of the 

 perfect insect, a small blackish brown beetle, cover over 

 with a piece of coarse canvas fixed in its place by 

 means of a hoop, in order not only to prevent the 

 escape of the beetles which can fly, but to hinder the 

 intrusion of such torments as mice and moths, and 

 after depositing the box, or barrel, in some warm place, 

 such as a stable, cowhouse, or even a kitchen 

 corner, leave it untouched for six months, at the 



