Coming to the British Birds, the Goldfinches and 

 Bullfinches were excellently well judged, but, with the 

 exception of the winning Bullie, were a somewhat 

 disappointing lot. What a falling off from the winners 

 of some five seasons ago. Really the lack of lustre 

 on the plumage of the Goldfinches was most marked. 

 Many good birds, too, appeared fagged out, hopelessly 

 sick of life, and it is pretty safe to predict a plentiful 

 crop of casualties 'twixt now and the autumn. The 

 Chaffinches introduced us to a winner minus primary 

 flights in the right wing! The winning Linnets, too, 

 were steady and of good size shape and feather, it is 

 true, but as devoid of polish as an unglazed flower pot, 

 short of markings, and of weak, waslied-out colour. 

 Lower down in the class, and among the unnoticed 

 rabble, were birds of good size and type, richly nutty- 

 brown in colour, and well-polished and pencilled — 

 which is one of those things past comprehension. In 

 both these classes I thought the Land o' Cakes had 

 very hard lines indeed. In the next class, restricted 

 to the Lesser Redpoll and Twite, we find a freshly- 

 imported Mealy Redpoll, as big as a bucket, placed 

 second, while a little gem of a genuine Lesser has 

 to be content with fourth. In Siskins the judge 

 pegs back the colour-fed, and clearly superior (bar the 

 feed), specimens, among the commended cards. In 

 the Greenfinches, on the contrary, the winners, with 

 perhaps a single exception, were palpably colour-fed ; 

 some of those singled out for notice so much so that, 

 though unbiassed on the matter, I considered them 

 positively unsightly. Yet there were some really fine 

 unfed Greenies in the class. One of Roberts and 

 Laing's unnoticed pair was very unlucky indeed. In 

 Bramblefinches, too, the why and wherefore of the 

 winner were hard to see— certainly a large one, and 

 steady, but with a broken crescent of breast colour, 

 and badly ditched in neck feather. The second. 



