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On the Nesting of the Sprosser.



thought would be quite as easy to rear. Further, there was no

sacrifice of bird-life iu obtaining a breeding pair; all the eggs

hatched ; all the young were reared and finer young birds it

would be hard to find.


I make it a rule to part with all species after breeding

them, so I hardened my heart and advertised the Sprossers with

other surplus birds at a very moderate price. The result amused

me. Some of the birds (which I should describe as most unin¬

teresting) were sold by wire and could have been sold several

times over, but for the glorious song of the Sprosser—surely one

of the greatest achievements of Nature—there was practically

no demand.


In this country there is a demand for Fire-finches and for

Cordons Bleus, but no one wants Nightingales. It is useless to

criticize public opinion and equally useless to attempt to influence

it. They tell me, however, that there was once a man who really

did mould avicultural taste, and that the modern craze (suggestive

word this!) for keeping delicate foreign birds is largely due to

him. If this is correct, I wonder whether that aviculturist sleeps

quietly today or whether his disembodied spirit is compelled to

wander, haunting bird-shops and bird-shows and the ash-pits of

enthusiastic disciples, wringing spectral hands and ceaselessly

bewailing the havoc his example has wrought. For many of his

followers, however, there is this excuse that they probably know

not what they do. If they once realised that for every Cordon

Bleu or Fire-finch which pays a brief and chilly visit to this

country, nine other little lives have generally petered out

miserably somewhere between their aviaries and the Equator,

I feel sure they would take up some other branch of aviculture.


It is because I feel strongly on this subject that I venture

to suggest that in breeding European species, such as the above,

one has an interesting pursuit and at the same time the satisfac¬

tion of feeling that there need be no waste of bird-life. Of course

it involves a great waste of time, but, if one chooses to waste one’s

time, that is one’s own affair: if we waste bird-life, other people

may reasonably claim to have something to say about the matter.



