Ml/ I>i(h'a» Co)>si(j)i))friif . 207 



Oiiii,-- T III ink you will find 

 poll, -is.' lor Miis h'ngtliy 

 niily ;i lew will he inter- 

 ested lu it and tlioso I'ow w il I |.ri)li,ilily be til ink iii.i;- of an old pro- 

 verb concerning egg^' and a ,i;ianny. T soniowhaf lonipor my 

 apologj' by mentionin,^'- that 1 shall probaMy lot myself go 

 on cages again if I gv't lln' change, cxcu-ing niys(df on the 

 grounds that I hav(^ had it fhci-oii^iily 1 (irnc in on mo how 

 very important good caging is in its i'D'rri on niorlality of 

 foreign liii-ds. It i-i not the d.>aloi' or cxi)erionccd colloiMor 

 that 1 lla^•o in my mind"s ryo, but rather the man with a 

 friend in foreign ])aiis, whc' trii'-; t'l get home small con- 

 signments by a ship's butclior. The .fi'iend probably does 

 not know too mucfi about birds and the wretched butcher 

 gets only an hour or two of pcidiaps not vory clear coaching, 

 and he may consider himself lucky to get that, and what hap- 

 pens as a rule is, a cat or a rat takes half the first night out 

 or a lot get out through a door being h^ft open. The casual- 

 ties are directly preventible by good caging. Other and even 

 more deadly causes of casualties are soi-e feet and Various dis- 

 eases brought on by dirt, and good caging has decidedly an 

 indirecf effect of giving time to cloan up. vSuch consignments 

 ^vould be a lioon, but they can hardly lie looked on as suc- 

 cesses as a rule at pi-esont. I am not trying to "get at" 

 anyone. Many years ago 1 got out a consignment of hardy 

 seed-eaters from home. I happened to look at the cage they 

 came in just before my dej^arture from India, and I shuddered, 

 and yet that dealer had done his best I know. Thaid<:s to the 

 chief officer of the ship I really got a 'fair number. My 

 first venture home with Indian birds was miserably 'caged, 

 and I had kept birds all my life. P.y dint of real hard work 

 I should not have done so badly but for want of live food. 

 I was offering a penny apiece for cockroaches without suc- 

 cess, but had I had more time I might have got just a few 

 daily myself and saved a lew more birds, as I hadonly a small 

 consignment. Not that I did so very badly then, but no one 

 with other work to do could have landed any except perhaps 

 some of the seed -eaters. 



I really must stop now% but caging is a subject I feel 

 very strongly about, not altogether from the sentimental point 



