No. 3.] Original Communications , etc. 



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If the Indian insect could be imported in such quantities and 

 at such a rate that it could be sold in the market at from \s, to 

 i^. 6fl?. a pound, it would be a great boon to aviculturists; for at 

 some seasons ant's cocoons are almost unprocurable whilst they 

 are often dear. (I am now paying i^. 9^. per pound for them.) 



The Indian insect has one great advantage over ant's cocoons in 

 that there is little rubbish intermingled with the mass ; it is all 

 edible.'^ 



The reply sent by Mr, Phillips is not quite so favourable in 

 character. He says : — "At present I have but few insectivorous 

 birds, and these mostly of a large size, the smallest being a 

 Nightingale, 



The ant's cocoons I have always given to the birds mixed with 

 other insectivorous food ; since the receipt of your dried insect, 

 1 have substituted the latter for the ant's cocoons, and occasionally 

 supplied it more plentifully to the Nightingale. All my insecti- 

 vorous birds were in perfect health at the commencement of the 

 change, and remain so now, so there is not anything to be proved 

 on that score. 



The Nightingale at first ate your dried insect rather freely, but 

 seemed to tire of it after a while, and the quantity supplied to him 

 had to be considerably reduced; now he gets on with it very well. 



Personally, before I used the food regularly for my birds in 

 lieu of ant's cocoons, I should require to know something more 

 about it: — What insect is it? How has it been prepared ? On what 

 food did it feed or what are its habits, to give it the present 

 green colour? , , . . A few kinds of dried flies have been 

 brought into the English market from time to time ; some have been 

 condemned, some ignored, only one or two taken up, but by so few 

 aviculturists that it can hardly pay to import them ; sol fear your 

 chances of success are not encouraging. 



Ant's cocoons are the fashion ; some of the samples imported sre 

 very bad ; and the good are offered at an exorbitant price • there 

 may therefore perhgps be an opening here— if you can show 

 that your insects are as good as ant's cocoons, and if you can 

 persuade the obstinate Britisher to make any change in what it has 

 been his custom to do." 



Taken into conjunction with the silence of the Zoological Gardens 

 and Messrs. Spratt, this does not seem very encouraging. 



My own experiments, however, convinced me that the "green 

 hug " is a really good article for feeding birds. By its use an 

 insectivorous bird causes no more trouble than seed-eater, if one 



