50 



more, and more, and more! Do not you? If not, 3-00 

 don't really enjoy bnying. Selling is useful, sometimes 

 necessary, but I am not writing about it at present. 



One thing that is bad about bird buying is the 

 possibility of being done. The very first Canaries I ever 

 purchased came from a lady who has since, and I feel sure 

 deservedly, been placed on the Exchange ami Mart's 

 Black List, and I have often bought frotn advertisers 

 since who ought to accompany her iuto that 

 cheerful retreat. She sent me two hens, if I 

 remember rightlj-, one blind and the other lame ; 

 but there was nothing interesting about the 

 transaction. One cannot. ask for sympathy when things 

 like this happen, because what will be said in reply is 

 stereot3ped and not consoling. It always includes a 

 reference, among other comforts, to the deposit-approval 

 system. Now I am certain that Mr. Fillmer did not use 

 that system, admirable as it is, when he bought his 

 Parrot Finch for 5/-. and the onh' time I tried it the man 

 wrote back that he had had a postal order by the same 

 delivery and preferred that. 



The game of chance, as played by sending small 

 sums (I say '• small " so as to shock nobody) for 

 advertised birds and waiting to see what will come, is 

 nonetheless exciting for the element of risk. On the 

 whole, one is oftener pleased than otherwise with what 

 arrives, though a Rock Parrot is decidedly more likely to 

 turn out an Alexandrine after all, than to be the 

 Australian rarit}^ you fondly hoped it might be. Such 

 things as this latter event do happen to some people, but 

 not to me. 



I prefer to buy through advertisements rather than 

 to go to shops, except in the case of one or two eniporia 

 where I am known. In a strange shop it is a disadvantage 

 to be feminine, for the dealer instantly concludes you 

 cannot possibly know anything, and it is so disagreeable 

 to refrain from argument when he tells you the Indigo 

 Bunting and the Nonpareil are hen and cock to one 

 another. Like Alice I replied indignantly, when I 

 received this piece of information last, but " Well, we 



