272 Dr. A. G. Butler,


that disease than if this article of diet were omitted from his

food.


In the discussion respecting the use of bread-crumbs,

biscuit was regarded as only one degree less dangerous ; so that

nearly all the foods which were considered most suitable by the

Russ school of aviculturists, and by the use of which they kept

insectivorous birds in perfect health and condition for many

years, have been condemned as dangerous: but, when one is

aware that the condemnation of many articles of human con¬

sumption has led to the production of a sect of pasty-faced, frog-

handed beings, who subsist upon plasmon and ground nuts, one

must needs hesitate to accept their dicta as convincing, or even

take them seriously.


Wagtails in captivity, like other insectivorous birds, live in

perfect health for years upon a combination of all the afore¬

mentioned ‘ dangerous ’ foods, with the addition of living insects,

their larvae and pupae, spiders, and centipedes.


Having due regard to their associates, there can be no

question that Wagtails are far more pleasing when kept in

aviaries than in cages; excepting in the case of hand-reared

birds which are permitted to fly about the house for a great part

of each day (such home pets being naturally by far the most

charming). Of the Wagtails which I kept for a time in cages,

in order to study the spring development of their summer

plumage were examples of the Pied, Grey, and Yellow species;

and I convinced myself that the changes took place by a gradual

growth of colour in the feathers, none of which were ever

moulted out at that season.


I first began to take delight in the Wagtails in my birds’-

nesting days (between 1871 and 1886) when I was fortunate

enough to secure nests of the Pied, Grey, Blue-headed, and

Yellow Wagtails in Kent. As regards the White Wagtail which

I saw on more than one occasion, it is possible that I may have

taken the nest; but, without seeing the bird go off it, could not

distinguish it from that of its near relative the Pied Wagtail.


The Blue- or Grey - headed Wagtail I saw on several

occasions in company with the Yellow, flitting about deserted

brick-fields where the excavations had filled with water and the



