THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 283 



speedily finishes them. Fancy yourself annoyed with living 

 torments, in proportionate size, robbing your veins, with 

 a want of nourishment to supply the loss. Birds, in nests, are 

 generally attacked most under their wings ; and it is very 

 often the case you will find some of the bugs in their ears. 

 Now, the greater part of this may be prevented by supplying 

 clean nests, well-shaped and rounded with a proper-formed 

 iron or egg^ making it resemble, as much as possible, the old 

 ones containing the young birds, which, when taken away, 

 may be destroyed by burning. Young birds, when caged off, 

 should be put in thoroughly clean cages, and, at about five 

 weeks old, they will begin to crack canary-seed. Encourage 

 seed-eating by gradually taking them off egg and soft food. 

 Supply fresh water daily, with good grit-sand in their cages. 

 Keep the young out of draughts; for when once a young bird 

 is seized with cold it is a chance it lives. Do not supply 

 whole hemp-seed too soon ; by so doing you try their tender 

 mandibles. Be careful (if green food is at all given) in 

 selecting only the seedy parts, such as the tops of groundsel, 

 shepherd's purse and plantain ; but all must be ripe. My 

 choicest birds (Belgians) I never supply with green food 

 after they are caged off, for it encourages purging. When 

 purging does happen keep the birds warm, apply one or two 

 drops of castor-oil, and after that give bread and milk 

 sweetened with honey, and, if possible, soon remove the 

 birds to a large cage or room, for a fly, which so much 

 promotes strength. I do not advise anyone to keep their 

 birds in damp places ; but 1 have always found less or no 

 vermin there exist. — Geo. J. Barneshy ; Abbey Street, Derby. 

 The Tsetse. — The plains on the south side of theLobombo 

 Mountains, towards Delagoa Bay, was the only district where 

 I met with the tsetse fly, and immediately below the moun- 

 tain they seemed more numerous than at a greater distance. 

 The belief of the natives in the dangerous character of the fly 

 is universal ; and 1 never heard any doubt expressed about it 

 among the white hunters, many of whom have come to this 

 district for many years. We were told that if we took our 

 dogs over the mountains they would be bitten by the fly, 

 would go blind in a few days, and die in ten days or a 

 fortnight. The fly, which was pointed out to us as the 

 tsetse, was very like a small horse-fly (cleg, as they are 



