343 



"15th of January, there was a lottery of birds; two liuiidred and one 

 "splendid birds and cages beingf offered as prizes. 



" Twelve thousand lottery tickets, at sixpence each, were on sale at 

 " the Exhibition. On the day of our visit we were informed that nearly 

 " eight thousand tickets had been sold. The idea was distinctly a good 

 "one, and the rapidity with which the tickets went off showed the interest 

 "which the general public took in the proceedings. The Exhibition was 

 "well patronised by visitors, especially on Sunday, which unfortunately is 

 "the great day for sight seeing in tliis country. 



"The Exhibition was held in two large halls, called the Rosenthaler 

 " Hof in Rosenthaler Strasse, Berlin. They were lofty and well ventilated, 

 "but the piercing cold outside made it necessary to enclose tlie cages of 

 "many of the smaller birds in an outer frame work of panelling and glass, 

 "the latter forming a doorway to the cage within and being in every case 

 "shut. The fact that ground glass was used made it impossible to see the 

 " occupants of the cages without opening the glass doors, and then the 

 " interior was often too dark to examine tlie bird critically. 



"In the second of these large lialls, in which the foreign birds were 

 "principally placed, the cages were much more roomy and open, so that 

 " tlie birds could be studied better. 



" Here in company with the foreign birds were several monkeys, a 

 "flying lizard and other similar animals, while numerous exotic plants 

 "and the trailing of greenery over the cages lent a charming aspect to 

 "the hall. The exhibits from China, Java, and Japan were most interest- 

 "ing. Particularly striking in the first section was a large cage full of 

 " Chinese Nightingales, all of them beautiful specimens. From Java we 

 " had a specimen of the Xaiitholxma rosea, and several examples of the 

 " more common birds of Java. The Japanese birds included a collection of 

 "the Japanese .Sea-Mews and the Pavo natiticns of the Malay and Japanese 

 "archipelago. Birds of Paradise were to be seen in their beautiful 

 "plumage. Crowds of Kice Finches and the seldom seen Desert Sparrows 

 "were in evidence; while to eiiiimerate the varieties of Parrots, Paro- 

 "quets and Cockatoos would be a long task indeed. 



"In the same hall cages of all sorts, bird foods and every requisite for 

 "bird keeping were to be seen.— J.W.R." 



A Coi.ONY OF Tri-coi<oured BLACKBIRDS {Agelaius tri- 



coloiir). From an article b}' J. G. Tyler in the Nov. -Dec issue 



of the "Condor" I have extracted the following, 



" The last day of April of this year (igoy) found me in the fields about 

 "30 miles S.W. of Fresno. Large wheat and alfalfa ranches extended for 



"some miles crossed b\' large canals or sloughs besides many smaller 



"ones I noticed a number of Tri-coloured Blackbirds flying out from 



"a point somewhere to the west of me an equal Jiuniber were con- 



"stantly flying up from the ground and returning in the direction from 



"which the others came About half a mile from where first seen, I 



" came suddenly upon a patch of nettles, about half an acre extent, grow- 

 "ing in a low, damp sink that was really t)ie end of a large abandoned 



"slough the growth was very dense and in some parts six feet high 



"on two sides of this pitch was a more or less dense fringe of willows 



" a hasty search soon revealed several nests on the bare ground among the 

 " growing foxtail grass." 



