The Breeding of llie Bearded Tit. 
209 
an ounce a week is really wasted, unless it is hadly prepared. 
A good soft-food sliould not readily turn sour and that is my 
objection to carrot. I speak not so mucli as an aviculturist 
as a ni(uiical man, but nevertheless if you find that birds do 
not eat up one kind of food, but do another kind, that is prima 
facie evidence that the former kind of food is unpalatable, 
and the latter palatable, to the birds, at any rate. The final 
judges of all fc)ods submitted to me for trial are the birds. 
They have to eat it, and not myself, but I can generally tell 
beforehand what they Avill or will not eat. Then, I thuik, 
I share another great secret with many other aviculturists and 
that hi ^ oi'kshire cheese, of which I give my birds U to 2 
ounces a day. I got the idea from Mr. Galloway, perhaps one 
of oui' cleverest avicultu''vsts with the more difficult Softbills. 
1 jjasb it thi'ough an ordinary culinary wire (not heair) sieve, 
17 gauge, by means of an ordinary wooden kitchen spoon, 
and when the cheese is fresh it looks very like vermicelli. 
'J'here is nothing like it for every kind of l)ird, Softbills, 
Finches, Waders, and in fact for birds of all sorts. It keeps 
the plumage glossy, the bowels regular, and, of course, being 
as it were, an animal food, makes an admii'able substitute 
for live food. In other words it is highly nitrogenous. I 
believe I owe my success very largely to this cheese. The 
sieve is very quickly washed by simply putting it underneath 
the hot-water tap. Then as regards further items of diet 
these are fresh ants' eggs (or coooons) and gentles. There 
is no finer food for birtls than fresh ants' eggs, but they 
are hard to get and rather exp^:nsive. Moreover, they axn 
only be obtained in the summer during line periods. First 
of al! let me say that the ordinary garden ants, unless you 
get plenty of " queen ants' eggs," are too small to be separ- 
ated profitably. Wood ants are the best and you need have 
no fear of being stung. They really do not hurt; in the 
least, and if they do bite it soon passes off and leaves no 
mark. They are big anfl very tierce, adopting a pugilistic 
attitude the moment they leave the "egg." liut have no 
fear; 1 am still alive! You dig up the nest and sift out 
the eggs and smaller rubbish into a large bath of water. 
The larger bits of rubbish and clods of earth arei left on 
the sieve and thrown away. The auts' eggs float as also do 
