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only fault I have to find with it is that it does not go far 

 enough. I feel certain a more copious work on this matter 

 from your logical pen would be welcomed not only by the 

 laity but also by those professional men who have a taste for 

 aviculture as well as for comparative patliology and hygiene. 

 There is room for a good work on a subject by no means 

 neglected by those eminent leaders of science such as Pasteur, 

 Koch, Metchnikoff, etc. I believe so far as the birds of utility 

 go, Sir John McFadyeau, Royal Veterinary College, goes deeply 

 into the question of their diseases with a view to their pre- 

 vention. 



Henry Gray, M.R.C.V.S. 

 117, EarVs Court Road, S.W. 

 Aug. ist, 1906. 



THE DIFFERENCE IN BIRDS' CHARACTERS. 



Sir, — I do not know if an}' of our members have kept 

 many of the same species of bird at the same time and noticed 

 the very marked characteristics in them. Irately I have had 

 six young Bullfinches, four of them being cocks, and in taming 

 them I found them to be very like human beings. Each one 

 has a temperament of its own, and each has to be treated 

 differently. Three of the cock birds got tame and fed from 

 my hand in a few days, but one would not, and now after 

 two or three weeks patience on my part he is just as far off 

 being nice and amiable as he was the first day. It is the same 

 in taking their baths ; they have them in a large wire cage 

 put by the front of the door, and come out and bathe directly 

 they see it. One, like a timid bather, tries first one foot and 

 then the other, stands in the water and hops out again twenty 

 times before finally having a dip ; another falls in at once and 

 splashes wildly ; a third makes a very long and careful dress- 

 ing of his feathers, oils them, and preens them, and then steps 

 in and has a systematic good old vSaturday wash, all thus being 

 different. I think it is all this that makes bird-keeping so 

 interesting. 



Goldfinches also are full of curious ways — as to their 

 tempers especially. I have one, who, if given even a sun- 

 flower seed he loves so well, rather than lose the opportunity 



