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living in luxury and happiness to an age when under natural

conditions they would long have surrendered their life to the

stress of Nature, or again we could show the birds mating and

bringing up their broods in full ecstasy of health and happiness

and relieved from the ever present sense of danger and the

necessity of hunting early and late to feed ravenous nestlings.

Yet, as every bird-fancier knows, all this goes on “ the other side

of the bars.”


But the Humanitarian may reply—Few birds lead this

ideal existence compared with the thousands that suffer as we

have described. To that the reply is, that never having kept a

bird or mixed with those who have, they know nothing of the

happy and well-cared-for birds in private homes, whereas the

bird-shops are open to all.


There is, however, a very good proverb which says that

there is “no smoke without fire” and as bird-keepers we must

allow that the conditions of some bird shops do require alteration.

To attack bird caging because some bird shops are badly kept

seems to the writer illogical and equivalent to trying to prohibit

all paraffin lamps because some explode.


I am quite sure there is no bird-keeper who is not a bird

lover and therefore just as anxious to put down cruelty as the

most rabid Humanitarian, and the reason why bird-fanciers have

not taken in hand the so-called “cruelties” of the dealer is

probably because as practical men w r e know that such cruelties

are largely exaggerated.


It seems, however, that it is time that the foundation of

truth, on which such pamphlets have been based, should be

removed. It has recently been suggested at an informal meet¬

ing of a few bird lovers that the registration and licensing of

bird dealers (which plan was also suggested by Mrs. Currey in

the Magazine for May, p. 213) would be a step in the right

direction—it would at all events sort out the respectable dealer

from those less reputable, and if members of the different fancier

societies only dealt with those dealers who kept their birds

properly, others would soon be starved out to the mutual benefit

of the fancier, the respectable dealer, and last, but by no means

least, of the birds themselves. Apart from actual overcrowding,



