HouoKl NATURE-STUDY AND THE BOBWHITE 69 



tor of Paris casts of the eggs are placed in tlic nests. They 

 do not seem to know the difference, and continue laying as 

 before. If the cock begins to brood, the hen usually makes a 

 new nest and continues laying. If there are no rats, cats or 

 other vermin about, and especially if turkeys can be raised in 

 the locality without danger of black-head, the bantam hens may 

 be allowed to rear the chicks. We must be sure that they have 

 plenty of insects for the first few days. We may get these 

 by sweeping the grass with an insect net, by setting wire cage 

 traps for flies, singeing their wings before feeding, by turn- 

 ing over stones and gathering the "ants' eggs" under them,, 

 by cutting branches and plants covered with plant lice — the 

 best first meal for the chicks — and by collecting meal worms 

 about the feed bins and pigeon lofts and, best of all, spiders 

 about the cellar and stable windows. Fly maggots are a good 

 food and we can raise them by the bushel, as people commonly 

 do for young turkeys and pheasants. They should be allowed to 

 reach their growth, empty themselves of all food matter and 

 wallow themselves clean in dust before being fed. We can also 

 raise mealworms in any quantities, and they have tided many 

 a flock over a week of cold or stormy weather, when maggots 

 would not grow and all other insects wxre in hiding. 



Artificial foods are also good to tide over a scarcity of in- 

 sects. Sour milk curds, common cheese grated or crumbled, 

 bread crumbs, either dry or moistened with sour or fresh milk, 

 boiled rice, grated carrot, boiled potato, all sorts of berries in 

 season, and apple, fresh chickweed, sorrel, clovers, grasses, let- 

 tuce — these offer a sufficient variety to keep the birds for a con- 

 siderable time. The standard food is ''plain custard" (made by 

 beating an o^gg with a half cup of fresh milk and baking or scald- 

 ing until coagulated.) Rich foods must be fed sparingly — a diffi- 

 cult thing to do — and the one rule to insure health is keep appe- 

 tite keen and vary and alternate sharply different kinds of food. 

 Bear in mind the ceaseless variety which the birds find as they 

 feed naturally, here a few insects, there some berries, next 

 weed seed or tender leaves. 



If rich meals follow in succession, bacteria are likely to 

 develop along the alimentary canal and kill the bird. If a meal 

 of custard is followed by one of strawberries, blackberries or 

 raspberries, sorrel blossoms, chickweed, anything coarse and 

 sour, the pestiferous bacteria are killed or swept out. Bac- 



