The Dartford Warbler. 
brown baby birds in their nest feathers, two of them had l)roken tlieir 
tails and thej' looked very ordinary, but when a well-known exhibitor 
came along and offered nie their weiglit in gold for them I preferred to 
keep my little mites. Now tiiey liave grown and moulted out into tlieir 
full glory, with every feather on their little bodies perfection. These 
are as tlieir beautiful picture proves very handsome and attractive 
birds. 
Keeping, as I have done for years, delicate warblers of other 
species, tits and wrens, I nevei' had any doubts as to being able to 
keep them alive ; all that I was afraid of was that they would probably 
damage their long tails. Like most other birds they did not agree 
long together and to avoid all risks I put eacii bird in a separate cage, 
where they have plenty of room to fly about and the result has been 
excellent. They are alwavs in " show condition," and are apparently 
as happy as " sand boys." 
Mr. Goodcliild when sketching the birds spent several hours 
in front of their cages, and can bear me out in my statement. 
My birds are perfectly tame and will come to the wires of their 
cages and peer into one's face and peck my finger, but they are exceed- 
ingly active, ever on the move —darting from one perch to tlie other with 
lightening rapidity Tlieir acrobatic feats are extraordinary, they love 
the sunshine and on bright days are unusually lively, erecting the 
head feathers into a crest am! cocking their tails bolt upright with a 
sidelong jerk, swelling their little throats with gladsome song or utter- 
ing their scolding note cha-cha-cha-cha as they somersault from one 
perch to another. I have kept every species of British cage birds proper, 
and many other kinds not recognized as such, but none have ever given 
me more pleasure than these. 
My birds were hand-reared from the nest, and all are males. 
They were fed on live ants' eggs principally, with a few mealworms 
added. When they could feed themselves they were gradually 
accustomed to insectivorous food of my own mixing, which is com- 
posed of good dried ants' eggs, dried " flies," &c., made crumbly 
moist with grated cairot and a small portion of hard-boiled egg, first 
pressed through a fine sieve. This is their usual stock food, but when 
the summer arrives they shall have, in connnon with the rest of my birds 
live ants' eggs, which are invaluable for all insectivorous birds ; meal- 
worms they scarcely ever see, and they frequently refuse to eat them 
when offered, but they are very fond of spiders and house flies, which 
are much better for them. Having noticed that my Sedge, Reed, 
Marsh, and other warblers thrived best when given ripe fruit in 
addition to their insect food, I gave them some banana, which I found 
