288 UNIVERSAL PASTE. 



Nightingales, and others of the more delicate kinds, must 

 also have ants' eggs, and meal-worms ; for the fruit-eaters 

 berries must be procured when in season. A store of insect 

 food for the winter season may be obtained by collecting 

 the flies, when they are most numerous in the windows 

 and elsewhere, drying them, and preserving them in a pot. 

 The paste with which these are to be mixed may be thus 

 prepared : Make sufficient wheaten bread for three 

 months' consumption, without salt ; get it baked, and let it 

 stand until stale ; then, when a batch of bread has been 

 drawn from the oven, have this put in, and let it remain 

 until the oven is cold. It will be easy then to break it 

 down into a coarse kind of meal, in which state, if pre- 

 served from moisture in a jar or canister, it will keep 

 good to the end of the above period. A teaspoonful of 

 this, mixed with about three times as much warm milk, 

 will suffice for the daily portion of each bird ; with this, a 

 few of the dried flies, or chopped meal-worms, should be 

 added, as often as a supply can be obtained. 



The recipes of two other preparations of the kind are 

 given by Bechstein, and experience of their efficacy enables 

 us to recommend them both with confidence. The ama- 

 teur who has a large collection of birds, all feeding together, 

 will find these especially useful. They are cheap, easily 

 prepared, and nearly all kinds of birds will eat them : 



' First Universal Paste. Take a stale, well-baked wheaten 

 loaf, put it in water, and let it remain there until completely 

 saturated ; then squeeze out the water, pour over the bread 

 as much milk as it will soak up ; then mix with it two 

 thirds of its own weight of barley, or wheat meal, well 

 ground, and sifted free from husk.' 



' Second Universal Paste. Grate a carrot very nicely, 

 then soak a small white loaf in fresh water, press out the 

 water, and mix the bread and carrot together, adding two 

 handfuls of barley or wheat meal ; put the whole into an 

 earthen vessel. Carrots may be kept in sand for the above 

 purpose through the year. If one of these roots cannot 

 be obtained, a good Swedish turnip will do. ' 



