C . F . HOD G E 
9 
meal worms about the feed bins and pigeon lofts, and, best 
of all, spiders about the cellar and stable windows. Fly 
maggots are a good food, and we can raise them by the 
bushel, as people commonly do for young turkeys and pheas¬ 
ants. They should be allowed to reach their growth, empty 
themselves of all food matter, and wallow themselves clean 
in dust before being fed. We can also raise mealworms 
in any quantities, and they have tided many a flock over 
a week of cold or stormy weather, when maggots would 
not grow and all other insects were in hiding. 
Artificial foods are also good to tide over a scarcity 
of insects. Sour milk curds, common cheese grated or crum¬ 
bled, bread crumbs, either dry or moistened with sour or 
fresh milk, boiled rice, grated carrot, boiled potato, all sorts 
of berries in season, and apple, fresh duckweed, sorrel, 
clovers, grasses, lettuce—these offer a sufficient variety to 
keep the birds for a considerable time. The standard food 
is “plain custard” (made by beating an egg with a half cup 
of fresh milk and baking or scalding until coagulated). 
Rich foods must be fed sparingly—a difficult thing to do— 
and the one rule to insure health is keep appetite keen and 
vary and alternate sharply different kinds of food. Bear in 
mind the ceaseless variety which the birds find as they feed 
naturally: here a few insects, there some berries, next weed- 
seed or tender leaves. 
If rich meals follow in succession, bacteria are likely to 
develop along the alimentary canal and kill the bird. If a 
meal of custard is followed by one of strawberries, black¬ 
berries or raspberries, sorrel blossoms, chickweed, anything 
coarse and sour, the pestiferous bacteria are killed or swept 
out. Bacteria grow best in neutral or alkaline media, and 
