ip6 



possess, lias never seen or tasted egg iu any form, aud was bred 

 from an ordinary English Greenfinch (which has been in the 

 Doctor's possession for about six or seven years) and a little 

 yellow Yorkshire hen picked up by chance in a hairdresser's 

 shop. He is one of the finest specimens I have ever seen both 

 in size, build, and colour, this latter being specially brilliant 

 aud eveu. One of our best known judges and authorities ou 

 the points of these birds, when writing to the press one day 

 last year, considered him good enough to praise. 



Considering the difficulties experienced by many who 

 breed birds, and who lose many of their young ones from 

 simply the use of egg food alone, it seems curious that they 

 still adhere todoctrines derived from traditional and unscientific 

 sources, and so persistently refuse to accept and to use methods 

 which have been proved to be scientifically correct. Such 

 conservatism would seem to be out of place among civilized 

 people in the twentieth century. J. E. R. McDonagh. 



The Daily Telegraph of Ma}' 25th, contains the following 

 paragraph from its special correspondent in Paris : 



" ' Eggs may be poisonous, even before they are laid ' is 

 the cheerful statement made by Professor MetchnikofF, of the 

 Pasteur Institute, in the witness-box. The whites may contain 

 disease-breedii:g microbes. These, when heated, survive iu a 

 vegetating state up to 6odeg. Centigrade, or 140 deg. Fahrenheit 

 Consequently a raw or even partly-cooked ^^z, however fresh, 

 ma\' always be poisonous owing to the possible presence of 

 lively bacilli iu the white, and contained therein from the very 

 beginning. The professor's evidence was given in a case before 

 the First Chamber, iu which a pastrycook is being sued by 

 twenty-five persous who had been made very ill by eating some 

 of his cream tarts, and \>\ the heirs of a twenty-sixth, who died 

 of it. Official experts, supported by M. MetchnikofF, stated 

 at the first hearing of the case that it was utterly impossible 

 ever to make sure that whipped cream containing white of egg 

 unboiled shall be innocuous, however fresh the ^^,^, for the 

 above reason." 



The above paragraph is highly interesting to bird keepers 

 as shewing how strong is the affinity between egg — even fresh — 

 and various bacilli of the septic group. We commend its 

 careful consideration to the various experts of the Fancy 

 papers. — Ed. 



