INSECTS FOR THE NURSERY 103 



themselves, and even self-feeding chicks often 

 show tastes in food different from those of adults. 

 In almost every case the difference consists in the 

 young bird's diet being more animal in character 

 than that of the old ones ; thus, Finches, which live 

 mainly on seed and other vegetable food themselves, 

 are frequently very largely insectivorous when feed- 

 ing young, as any one may see with the common 

 Sparrow. I found also the young Bulbul I men- 

 tioned above would not swallow fruit if it could 

 possibly help it, but gladly took flies and pea-m.eal 

 paste (a common article of food for insectivorous 

 birds among native fanciers in India), although the 

 adults feed, I think, more on fruit than on insects. 

 I have also referred above to the Red-eared Bulbuls 

 catching dragon-flies for their young, though I 

 never saw the adults eating these insects. 



This habit of feeding the young on insects is a 

 great stumbling-block to the class of fanciers, very 

 numerous nowadays, who like to get their birds 

 to breed in their aviaries, for birds are, in the case 

 of species who believe in insects as a nursery regimen, 

 so obstinate about it that they commonly refuse 

 to use any substitute, at any rate during the early 

 stages of rearing, and even, in the case of insec- 

 tivorous birds, often give up eating the artificial 

 mixture themselves. Probably the mental excite- 

 ment due to parenthood produces a reversion to 

 the state of mind of the newly-caught bird, which 

 has to be gradually accustomed to the artificial 

 diet, just as birds previously tame often conceal 



