16 INTRODUCTION. 



as eat insects and berries, as Nightingales, Redbreasts, Thrushes, 

 Blackcaps, &c. Fourth, such as eat insects only, as Wagtails, 

 Fieldlarks, Whitetails, Blue-throated Warblers, &c. Birds of the 

 fourth class are the most difficult to preserve in health ; and 

 yet, as their song is in general not remarkable for beauty, they 

 by no means repay the trouble which must be expended on 

 them. To meet this difficulty, it is a good plan, in spring, to 

 collect, dry, and store up for use the flies which may be found 

 in great numbers in the windows of old buildings. At the 

 season, therefore, when living insects cannot be procured, these 

 flies may be mixed with the paste which I am about to describe ; 

 and which, with the occasional addition of a few ants' eggs, or 

 meal-worms, may be considered as an universal diet for all de- 

 licate birds. Let a supply of wheaten bread, sufficient for 

 three months' consumption, be baked without salt. When the 

 loaves have become stale, they are again to be put into the oven 

 when a batch of bread has been withdrawn, and allowed to re- 

 main while it gradually cools. They may then easily be pounded 

 into a species of meal, which will keep good for a quarter of 

 a year. Of this, a large tea-spoonful is allotted for the daily 

 portion of each bird, and mixed with three times the quantity of 

 warm milk, which in no case, however, must be allowed to boil. 

 A stiff paste is the result, which may be cut into small pieces 

 on a board, is very nourishing, and never becomes neither sour 

 nor sticky, even in the hottest weather. In the case of delicate 

 birds, a few flies, or chopped meal-worms, may, as before said, 

 be mixed with this paste. 



With respect to the first class, experience teaches that Ca- 

 naries prefer a mixture of canary, summer-rape, and crushed 

 hemp seed ; Goldfinches and Siskins poppy seed, now and then 

 mixed with a little crushed hemp seed ; Linnets and Bullfinches 

 rape seed alone. Besides this, all require an occasional supply 

 of green food cabbage, and lettuce leaves, and water-cress as 

 well as river sand, which is highly useful in the process of di- 

 gestion, and with which the floor of their cage should always 

 be kept strewed. Among birds of the second class, Quails are 

 fond of wheat and bread crumbs ; Larks prefer barley meal 

 mixed with cabbage and water-cress cut small, or poppy seed 

 and crumbs of bread, or in winter, oats ; Chaffinches like rape 

 seed in summer, sometimes mixed with a little hemp seed ; 

 Yellow -hammers are fond of the same diet as the Larks, with the 

 exception of the green food ; and the various species of Tits eat 



