Birds In and Ahnnt ihr SfaHoii. 
self, but all have ended in failure. The native our way is 
not naturally a bird lover and is too lazy for such a job. It 
is all ri^^ht as long- as the old birds are feeding- their caged 
otVspring. Their keeper will tell you tlie young are taking 
mealworms and yet he has not the foresight to decrease the 
meahvorms given him so as to back up his lie. I have kept 
wild-caught youngsters for si\ weeks or so until I had to 
leave them. At first I had great difficulty in getting them 
to take mealworms or maggots or even grasshoppers, but after 
a couple of " stuffings they recognised the mealworm as a 
most succident morsel and discovered that good things are not 
of necessity only (Mught on the wing. Still, 1 could not get 
them nu-ated oft. they would take a little soft food but did 
not thrive., and again and again I had to fall back on in- 
creased live food. Raw meat 1 could not get them 
to loucli in an\- form, though I persisted in niy efforts 
with all sorts of luxurious tit-bits cut in tempting: shapes; 
dryisli or juicy, livery ("g-udgy" we used to call it) or 
meaty, white or red, amongst cut-up mealworms or cunningly 
hung up, it was equally ignored. They did not always eject 
what was stuffed into them, but that was the total amount 
taken b}- them. After about three weeks 1 let them loose in 
what used to be my Finch aviary, along with some White- 
throated Fantails which were in. a similar case. They had this 
aviary tc themselves and very charming they were to watch. 
Grasshoppers and Dragon-flies were procurable in abund- 
ance and the birds throve but made no progress as to becom- 
ing meated off. Paradise Flycatchers are very fond of butter- 
flies even of the indigestible looking kinds. Some of the 
larger kinds give wild birds quite a good flight, but of course 
in the aviary they had little chance. They were usually held 
by one wing close to the body in the beak until by free 
banging bni a branch, and by the fluttering of the insect itself 
the wing broke off. The falling insect was imrnediatcly 
swooped upon and seized and the process continued with an- 
other wing. Occasionally the bird would help the process 
with a foot, but not at all in the manner of a Shrike or a 
Tit. 
It was a pretty sight to watch the birds bathing, 
