51 



SETvL them so at ain' rate," seemed an unanswerable 

 arjj^ument. Tlien, if you are not absolutely poverty 

 stricken in appearance, and especially if you arrive in a 

 hansom, as I alwaj's do, because I can't walk and am 

 afraid of small-pox in omnibuses, the prices go up at 

 once. Of course this doesn't apply to what I call real 

 bird shops — that is, to shops kept by men who are them- 

 selves aviculturists, only to the catchpenny sort where 

 dogs in a state of mange, manufactured Manx cats, and 

 guinea pigs very very far from being show stock — who 

 takes the trouble to breed the rabbits and cavies that 

 these shops sell, I wonder ? — help to make things pleasant 

 for the birds. Then, in the good shops, temptation lurks, 

 and you bux' ever so much more than you intended ; the 

 pleasure is over in a very few minutes, and there is no 

 anticipation. It is twice as good to write to the shop 

 and have the birds come to you — at least so I find it. 

 I wish the other members would all tell us what they 

 think and how they buy — and especially whether they 

 are reckless or prudent. There is a little bit in Mr. 

 Verrall's letter which bears on this subject : he says it is 

 his rule never to buy or sell on approval. I can 

 thoroughly understand and sympathize with not selling 

 on approval, when one knows one is honest and reliable. 

 But why never buy on approval } Everybody is not a 

 member of the Foreign Bird Club or another similar 

 Society, and approval is wholesome (though I don't like 

 to wait to deposit) for some advertising dealers to 

 practise. The reliable ones offer it freely without 

 deposit, so it cannot be amiss to take them at their 

 word. Perhaps the objection is vicarious and Mr. 

 Verrall is arguing from the birds' point of view. If 

 you go in for Canaries, approval is very usefnl, for some 

 amateurs who are perfectly bona fide are nevertheless 

 completely untrustworthy, merel}' because they don't 

 know what they are talking about. The purely amateur 

 idea of a good Crest Canary, for instance, is often as 

 far as the empyrean from the reality as understood by 

 an expert. Margaret Wii,i,iams. 



