350 Caxar/es axd Cage-Birds. 



difficult to dispose of, a process to dry and preserve this yolk has been invented, and an article 

 has resulted which is admirably adapted for bird-feeding. The white of hard-boiled eggs is 

 not useful for birds, because highly indigestible, and therefore superfluous to bird-keepers. 

 Instead of having the trouble of first boiling an egg, then testing whether it is fresh, 

 breaking it up, and wasting a great part in doing so, this preparation of egg-yolk ofters 

 pure bird-food ready for use in tin canisters, a dessert-spoonful of the bright yellow 

 flakes being equal to one boiled egg, and the price being less than one-half cf that of fresh 



egg- 

 Live insect food, especially mealworms, are, in the hands of a beginner in bird-keeping, very 

 much what the first sharp knife is in the hands of a small school-boy, and almost sure to lead to 

 some trifling accident. Mealworms are extremely fattening and stimulating. One or two do no 

 harm, and if given at the proper season they are very good, but to give thcni liberally makes 

 birds forsake their other food ; and whenever I tried to rear a young brood of Mocking-birds, 

 Cardinals, Indian Starlings, Blue Nightingales, &c., by feeding the parent birds liberally on 

 mealworms, ill-success resulted. I believe the cause to have been that mealworms are so very 

 tempting that the old birds find it impossible to resist swallowing a good many by mistake ; 

 neglect of the young brood follows ; whilst the old birds are so much stimulated that they want to 

 build a fresh nest and lay again before their proper time. 



Fresh ants' eggs are much better to rear broods of young birds on ; and I owe such success 

 as fell to my lot in breeding insectivorous birds to the substitution of these for mealworms. 

 It is not difficult to find an ant-hill, and such a one I put bodily — earth, ants, larva;, and all — in 

 a bag, giving the birds a handful or two every three or four hours. The old birds will 

 find plenty to do in collecting the ants, and scratching or picki.ng the larvcC out of the earth. 

 A few spiders are very healthy, whilst flies and gentles (meat-maggots) appeared to disagree with 

 all those small birds to whom I gave such in any quantity. 



But he who will try to keep or breed soft-food birds must arm himself with inexhaustible 

 patience, and make up his mind to persevere in spite of repeated failure. 



For Parrots, canary-seed should form the staple food ; Parrakeets take millet also, but the 

 larger Parrots do not care much about it. Variety of food cannot be too much recommended, 

 and an almost endless variety can easily be offered to most kinds of the larger Parrots. 

 Undulated or Shell Parrakeets do not care for much beside canary and millet seed. Grey 

 Parrots, Cockatoos, Rosellas, &c., however, will take hemp, oats, barley, Indian corn, sunflower 

 seed, and in fact almost any seed that is given to fowls or pigeons. Hemp should be given 

 only as a delicacy ; it is very heating and fat-producing. A bird may thrive on hemp in winter, 

 and perish in consequence of too much hemp in summer, eat it ravenously for a time, and refuse 

 it altogether some other time. Parrots once used to a free supply of hemp will often refuse 

 other food, and necessitate the disagreeable process of semi-starvation to preserve their health. 

 Sunflower seed contains about as much oil and is less heating than hemp seed, thus forming a 

 relish at once safe and agreeable to the bird. Oats are liked by Parrots because they contain 

 a good mouthful. Indian corn may be given boiled or raw ; when raw it employs the beak and 

 amuses the birds, but it is somewhat constipating, and is therefore a good food in the summer, 

 when the birds have plenty of green food. 



The greatest treat for Parrots is millet in the ear, Indian corn on the stalk, corn, oats, barley, 

 or wheat in the ear, and a small quantity may be given, even if not ripe, instead of green-meat. 

 Salad, groundsel, chickweed, should be given freely, but never wet ; and to those Parrots who 

 have an inclination to gnaw, a budding branch of willow or elderberry, or even a stick of firewood' 



