48 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
paste, with a little lean beef or mutton, cut small, added to 
it. This should be previously soaked in water. He also 
recommends for this bird an egg boiled hard, cut in two, and 
placed in the cage for the bird to pick out the yolk itself. 
Insects of every kind are good, and the more the bird has 
the better for its health and spirits. It is a pretty and loud 
songster, and will sing frequently by night as well as by 
day, and a good part of the year through. It is also a good 
mimic ; its call notes -divefeed ! and tzerk ! 
THE WHEATEAR. 
This is a larger bird than either of the two preceding 
species, which it much resembles in its general habits and 
characteristics, being shy and retiring, and resorting to the 
fallow lands and open moors, living, moreover, upon beetles, 
flies, and other insects, and building its nest upon the 
ground, under the shelter of gorse and bramble bushes, 
large stones, &c. It may also sometimes be found in the 
interstices of ruinous walls, fissures of chalk and gravel pits, 
and hollows of sand banks, &c. The nest is composed of 
grass, moss, and wool ; and the eggs, five or six in number, 
are of a delicate blueish green colour. The legs, cheeks, 
beak, tail, and wing feathers of this bird are black, some of the 
latter being edged with yellowish brown or white 5 the upper 
part of the back, the neck, and top of the head are gray ; 
there is a narrow streak of white over the eyes ^ the under 
part of the tail is also white, which gradually deepens into 
a pale orange tinge, as it extends up the breast and throat, 
where it fades into white again before joining the black 
cheeks. A truly handsome and graceful bird is this, 
and a very lively and interesting species, arriving in this 
country in March, and leaving it again in September or 
October, although they have been se^n here as late as the 
middle of November, Hying about in search of insects, as 
brisk and lively as though it had been the middle of 
summer. 
The young of this bird should be taken when nearly 
fledged, and fed upon bread soaked in boiled milk, made into 
a soft paste, and mixed with lean raw meat, scraped very 
fine ) or the yolk of an egg boiled hard. Experience goes 
to prove that they are scarcely worth the trouble of rearii);:;', 
