94 The Indian Shama 



tins ; so that all there is to be done is to put a little 

 of the food fresh every day for your shama, or your 

 Pekin robin, or your nightingale, just as you have to 

 do with seed if it were a seed-eating bird, with an 

 addition of boiled potato, or carrot, &c. 



And such dealers — " naturalists," ought I to call 

 them ? — would probably put in any particular ingre- 

 dient, or omit it, according to your taste — or rather, 

 your bird's. Not that a shama doesn't appreciate 

 entrees and releves, &c., just as you do. 



JSf.B. — Beware of those mixtures for insectivorous 

 birds, which are for the most part composed of pea- 

 meal and crushed hemp seed. 



Therefore, feeling yourself how irksome, not to say 

 unwholesome, it would be were you to always be 

 given bread and butter day by day, and nothing else, 

 or roast beef and nothing else, take pity on the 

 shama, or any insectivorous bird you may have. 

 Summon up your courage to handle a mealworm ; 

 give him five or six a day — those would correspond 

 to the potted shrimps you had for luncheon ; and 

 occasionally some juicy raw beef, chopped fine — that 

 would represent your " Fikts de bceuf a la something 

 or other; " and then, too, in the summer time, once 

 or twice a week, a little fresh lettuce, also chopped 

 fine — that would be his salad. A shama could do 

 on merely the prepared insectivorous food, especi- 

 ally if there were plenty of what are called ants' 

 " eggs " in it. 



A delicate bird he certainly is not, but of course 

 he must be kept out of unnecessary draughts. 



