KINDS OF FOOD. 287 



the genus Sylvia, or Warblers. These last are the most 

 difficult to rear, and as there are but few good songsters 

 among them, they do not compensate for the trouble and 

 care which they require. 



Canary birds, and most others belonging to the first class, 

 feed readily upon a mixture of canary-seed and crushed 

 hemp and rape-seeds ; Goldfinches and Siskins upon poppy- 

 seeds, occasionally mixed with crushed hemp ; Linnets and 

 Bullfinches should have rape -seed only, and that prepared 

 by putting as much as will suffice for a day's consumption 

 into a pipkin, covering it with water in the morning, leav- 

 ing it upon the hob in winter, or in the sun in summer, 

 until the following morning, when it will be fit for use after 

 the water is drained off. Hemp- seed, which is sometimes 

 given to the Bullfinch, is very injurious ; as a change, it 

 may sometimes have poppy- seed and millet, of which it is 

 very fond, also a little sprouting wheat or barley. All 

 these birds require an occasional supply of green food, such 

 as cabbage or lettuce leaves, watercresses, chickweed, or 

 groundsel. Sand at the bottom of the cage is indispensable, 

 not so much for purposes of cleanliness as to assist the di- 

 gestion, as they swallow a portion of it. Wheat and bread 

 crumbs are best for Quails ; for Larks, barleymeal mixed 

 with cabbage, or crumbs and poppy-seed mixed ; in winter, 

 crushed oats, a few meal-worms or maggots now and then, 

 or a little raw beef cut very small, may be given with ad- 

 vantage. Feed the Yellow-hammer the same. Give Chaf- 

 finches rape-seed, sometimes mixed with a little hemp, with 

 green food and fruit, and a meal-worm or two or some 

 insects occasionally ; white bread soaked in milk, and 

 mashed into a paste with the bruised seeds, suits it very 

 well. The Tits eat hemp or fir seeds, bruised oats mixed with 

 bread or meal, and a little lard, also hazel and walnuts. All 

 birds which feed chiefly on seeds, with green food and a few 

 insects now and then, can generally be kept in confinement 

 without much difficulty. It is not so with those which eat 

 insects and fruit, or the first kind of food only ; for these a 

 paste must be made of best white bread soaked in boiling 

 milk, mixed up with which are some flies, or other insects. 



