42



Practical Bird-Keeping.



Of the Mvriopoda, which also are not insects, the centi¬

pedes are eaten with avidity, but the millipedes are refused.

The broad centipede (Lithobius forficatus) is sometimes met with

when separating a cask of flower-pots for greenhouse work, but

these little animals are not so abundant as to be of great im¬

portance to the aviculturist; nevertheless they should not be

thrown away when much food is needed for rearing young birds.


Of the Thysanura the abundant little so-called “Silver-

fish ” (. Lepisma ) may often be obtained in abundance under boxes

or tins or even in the mealworm-pan, and though it is so active

and brittle that it cannot well be picked up and offered to a bird,

it may be brushed into a basin and the latter placed in an aviary

when the whole collection will speedily be devoured.


Mayflies ( Epliemeridce ) and caddis-worms ( Phryganeidce ) are,

as is well-known, favourite food for all insect-eating creatures,

the latter can be obtained in a dried form from Germany and

from some of the English dealers, but in this case they must

be scalded before they can be used as they are very hard when

received in their tinned form. The smaller Dragon flies are

eaten, but are not easily obtained in quantity.


Termites or so-called White-ants would be excellent food

for our pets if we could only get them preserved in quantities :

they are one of the plagues of tropical countries and could easily

be collected and dried for importation as bird-food, but nobody

seems to have had sufficient enterprise to make use of them.

Earwigs ( Euplexoptera ) are well known to be acceptable and

these can easily be obtained in the autumn, by crumpling up

paper and ramming it into a flower-pot inverted over the sticks or

stakes used as supports for Delphiniums, Dahlias, &c. Remove

the pots to an aviary or large cage and open the paper, when the

insects will drop out in numbers and form a pleasing variety in

the dietary of your insectivors.


The Orthoptera generally are acceptable to birds, but in

this country few can be secured even in fair quantities ; perhaps

grasshoppers are most numerous, but only in certain districts,

while crickets seem only to abound in the kitchens of old houses:

yet why locusts, which are a plague in the tropics, are not dried,

deprived of their legs, heads, and wings, and ground into meal



