Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: 



Vol. VI. ] 



SPRING, 1915. 



[No. 5. 



On Liberating Caged Birds. 



By W. H. HUDSON. 



Some time ago the Secretary of this 

 Society sent me a letter received from 

 an English lady in Switzerland, with 

 the request that I should reply to it. 

 The lady stated that she had seen a 

 Crossbill in a cage in some Italian 

 town where she was staying, and as 

 the bird appeared to be in a sadly 

 neglected condition she bought it with 

 the intention of giving it its freedom. 

 As she was just leaving that spot for 

 Switzerland, she took the bird with 

 her to liberate it in a country where 

 little birds were less persecuted than 

 in Italy. But at the hotel where she 

 stayed in Switzerland she was told 

 that her Crossbill would be persecuted 

 to death by the wild birds : for that 

 was their way — they invariably set upon 

 any bird that had been in a cage. 

 Fearing to release it, yet hating to keep 

 it in prison, she wrote to the Society. 

 I told her in my reply that it was a 

 delusion that her bird would be in any 

 danger if freed, and advised her to 

 take it out in the morning, so that it 

 could have a whole day in which to 

 recover from the effects of the long 

 confinement and neglect, and liberate 

 it in any place where there were trees. 

 Shortly afterwards I had a letter from 

 her to say that she had done as I had 

 advised, and that the bird on being 

 released flew away to a wood at some 



distance, and was not pursued or noticed 

 by the other birds. 



As it is quite a common notion that 

 the caged bird when liberated will meet 

 with ill-treatment from the wild birds, 

 it occurred to me that a paper on this 

 subject would be of use to the Society : 

 it would, at all events, save the task 

 of writing many letters in reply to 

 many received asking for information 

 on the subject. 



I know a good deal about birds, 

 having been observing them all my 

 life, and have also a good deal of 

 experience in liberating them, as I hate 

 to see a bird, taken from its wild life, 

 in a cage, and whenever the occasion 

 offers I am glad to set one of these 

 unhappy captives free. But this paper 

 will perhaps be more useful, more read- 

 able, if I relate here one of my experi- 

 ences in setting a bird free. 



I was staying at Seaford for a few 

 days in August, and the place being 

 chock-full of visitors, I had to put up 

 in a very small and poor place in a 

 little back street. My sitting-room, not 

 big enough to swing a cat in, was next 

 to the kitchen on the ground floor, and 

 as the wall, or partition, was thin, I 

 was much disturbed with the noise. 

 It was the noise, or rather the sound, 

 of a perpetual fight raging between 

 my landlady, a poor weak silly creature, 



