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intended to apply where a number of birds are kept, and to all individuals

■of our British summer Sylviuice, weakly or robust.


As regards food.— The only satisfactory staple food that T have been

able to discover is hard boiled egg and ants' eggs, in equal parts, served

fresh twice a day. The egg should be run through a wire sieve and then

mixed, with the ants' eggs. About twice a week, scraped raw beef should

be given, and. on those days, instead of the egg and ants' eggs, give bread

soaked in milk, with the milk well .squeezed out, and mixed with about a

third of its bulk of hempseed well crushed and pounded. Each bird

should have at least five mealworms a day, or other live food. Green meat

and fruit should also be given, and will be relished b3^some but not by all.

The only drawl)ack to this food is that it is liable to become too fattening.

The first symptom of this is, probably, that the bird has a slight fit ;

when this is the case, stop the egg, give him ants' eggs damped in milk,

and a little scraped beef and plenty of green food, but do not feed too well.


During the winter, if a light be not left in the room, they should have

a last feed at night. Drop some mealworms into the food-dish and they

will soon feed. A bath, twice a week at least, is essential.


If this method should be followed, I am sure there are few or no birds

that will not keep in the pink of health and condition, but it may well be

questioned whether birds that need such care are worth the trouble of

keeping. I can only say that, if one's purse is long enough and one has

sufficient spare time, few birds would better repay the care, both in

their song, tame dispositions, and enticing ways ; but there can be no half-

measures, and a couple of days' neglect is sufficient to induce many to

■start on their last journey.


_ J. I,EWIS BoNHOTE.


Sir, — The Gefiederte W^^//f mentions that Dr. Russ kept a Tui for over

two years on the following food : Ants' cocoons and grated carrot, mixed :

l)esides dailj' a little piece of biscuit soaked in milk, now and then a little

:sweet fruit or a teaspoonful of honey, also a little scraped raw meat.


In the Zoological Garden of Berlin the Tui is fed upon Tanager-food ;

this bird has lived there four years.


I feed my Tuis in the same way as Tanagers, Spectacle-birds,

Warblers and similar birds, and, I make bold to say, with the greatest

success : fresh sweet cheese or curdle, a little preserved yolk of &gg, ants'

■cocoons, grated stale bread or biscuit, grated raw carrot or carrot-meal,

mixed ; now and then banana or other sweet fruit.


The fresh cheese is much easier digested by all these birds than boiled

■egg and meat ; it is made by mixing fresh milk, one quart, with rennet,

three teaspoonsful, keeping it for a little while in a temperature of So to 90

•degrees and boiling it afterwards. Mixed with some good dried ants'

■cocoons, I consider it to be a good substitute for fresh ants' cocoons.


The great success which places the Austrians in front of all other

nations in keeping soft-billed birds is due, I believe, in a great extent, to

the free use of fresh sweet cheese.


Through my persuasion, the late Mr. Erskine Allon tried feeding his

■Shamas on fresh cheese-food, and he assured me many times that these

birds were thriving splendidly upon it.



