Dr. Russ speaks of the Blue Sugar-bird as less delicate

than the Yellow-winged Sugar-bird ; he does not say what he

fed it on ; but, for Ccereba, he recommends a mixture of grated

skinned sweet almonds, mixed with crushed biscuits and white

sugar.


It appears to me that there is no possible reason why the

same food which keeps one fruit- and insedl-eater in perfect

health should not be used with equal success in the case of

all ( a ).


For four years I kept a Zosterops in perfect health and

condition on a mixture of bread-crumbs, potato, yolk of egg,

Abrahams’ food and ants’ cocoons, with orange, sweet-water

grapes split open, over-ripe pear, or sweet apple. On the same

mixture I kept a Superb Tauager in absolutely faultless plumage

and vigorous health, for nineteen months ; and only lost it in

consequence of an epidemic of influenza, which greatly reduced

my collection during the two months in which it raged. I have

already kept two male Scarlet Tanagers for nineteen or twenty

months in perfect health and condition on the same food.


These facts would be sufficient for me; but, at the same

time, as the Cwebidce are somewhat more insectivorous than

Tanagers, I should certainly offer them mealworms ; and, if

they took kindly to this form of insect-food, I should not stint it.


I am well aware that some of our members think me

wholly in the wrong in always recommending the same food for

insectivorous birds, yet it would surely be a greater error to

omit to recommend that which I have found most satisfactory.

For ten years I have fed an American Blue-bird upon it, and he

is still full of vigour ; for ten years a Liothrix had nothing else

(excepting seed, of which he swallowed his full share); for over

five years I have kept a Blackbird in perfect health upon this

mixture, and he is as full of song as ever. It may not suit a

Nightingale ; yet I have kept that bird twice as long upon it as

upon the yolk-of-egg + ants’ cocoons -j- mealworm diet, and at

about a tenth the cost. In my opinion, therefore, this food

deserves a fair and impartial trial in the case of Sugar-birds.



(a) Sugar-birds of two species lived for years and years in the Parrot house iu the

Zoological Gardens—oil the usual mixture provided there for Tanagers, one example of

which (the Blue-headed Tauager) has been iu the Parrot house since 1884.—E). G. B. M.-W.



