Rare Birds at the L.C.B.A. Show.



75



leave of the Society) my notes on the subject because I felt, when I wrote

them, that the occurrence was not really worth describing. When the

young only qualify for the Society’s medal by the narrow margin of one

week, it means that there is something wrong with the system of treatment.

Such occurrences are not successes really : they are failures.


W. E. Teschemaker.


P.S.—Why does not Mr. Davies send us some notes on South African

Seedeaters ? They would be most interesting.



RARE BIRDS AT THE L.C.B.A. SHOW.


By D. Seth-Sjviith, F.Z.S.


The London Cage-bird Association held their 22nd Annual

Cage-bird Show, at the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster,

from November the 25th to 28th.


As this is written just as the Magazine is going to press,

and only a small space therein is available, it will only be possible

to mention here, the more important of the exhibits, and I shall

not attempt to criticise the judging.


The foreign birds made an extremely fine show, amongst

them being some of great rarity, and a good many that had

never before been seen on the show-bench.


Perhaps the most startling exhibit of the show was the

trio of Blue Budgerigars shown in the first of the Foreign

classes. In one’s early days of bird-keeping one heard of a Blue

Budgerigar, but for my own part I never expected that I should

ever see one, and probably the majority of us regarded it as a

myth. However here were no less than three specimens, barred

across the back like ordinary Budgerigars, but the green of the

common bird was replaced by sky-blue, and the yellow of the

face had given place to white. In short the yellow in the bird’s

coloration had been entirely eliminated, leaving the blue pigment

perfectly pure. These most interesting birds were shown by Mr.

Pauwels, who had sent them, with many other rare birds from

his aviaries in Belgium.


I11 the class for the larger Parrakeets and Lories, Mr.

Pauwels showed a good Uvsean Parrakeet, a nice pair of Red-

naped Lorikeets, a Black-capped Lory and a pair of Blue-winged

Grass Parrakeets. Mr. C. T. Maxwell, a rare Mitchell’s Lorikeet,



