Correspondence.



211



The parent birds never bred again, though each spring they made a round

of inspection of the nest-boxes. Now, alas ! the stock lias died out.


Zoological Society, Regent's Park. D. Seth-Smith.



Sir,— Those of our readers who are fond of wild birds may be interested to

hear that others besides “ Billy,” the Great Tit, will now perch on our hands to be

fed. “ Zit,” the cock Robin, comes regularly, and stays for quite a long time.

He seems to prefer feeding from my hand if I have gloves on. A few days ago,

after eating what he wanted, he still sat on, and broke into the sweetest whisper of

a song, very low and clear, by way of thanking me. It was so pretty to watch

the quivering of his small throat as he sang. Twice “Zit” and “Billy” have

had a fight on my hand, one bird being already there and the other coming to

<lrive him off. Of course it ended that both went, as a human hand is no

platform for a boxing match. “Billy” follows us all over the garden; we have

only just to call him on, and he flits from tree to tree. Besides “Billy,” another

Great Tit (who is lame on one foot) will come readily to feed from our hands.

This bird has not come so much lately, and we think it is “Billy’s mate, and

that she is sitting.


Four other Great Tits and one little Marsh Tit are getting very tame, and

want to come badly. They make efforts that so far fall just short of their object,

but I do not think the Marsh '1 it will be long in coming.


Of the pair of Blue Tits, only one comes on our hands, and it is tamer

with my brother than with me. The hen Robin lingers about, but is very shy.

Practically all the food I tame the birds with is some pieces of ground pea-nut,

old and mouldy, and not good enough for the aviary birds. If we had only more

time to spare we could get the wild birds much tamer, but we can only give them

a minute or two now and then. I think the severe and long winter has made

the birds more fearless. It is April 10th to-day, and the ground was white this

morning with last night's snowfall. Faithfully yours,


R. Aj.derson.



EARLY FRENCH AVICULTURAL LITERATURE.


Sir, — I find that my anonymous correspondent, who most kindly sent me

some particulars about a very early and very interesting French work on Canaries,

is our member Monsieur P. A. Pichot. He has since been good enough to write

me further particulars which are well worth recording, and, I may add, has also

procured for me a copy of the 1706 edition, thereby putting me under an obligation

for which I have tendered my grateful thanks.


As I surmised, this old work antedates the ‘ Fancyer’s Delight ’ by several

years, and Mr. Pichot mentions two treatises of an even earlier date. The fact

that the German name for an aviary is a French word (“ voli&re ”) suggests that

the Germans were not the first aviarists in Western Europe, and IJervieux claims

that Paris originally received the Canary direct from the Canary Islands and

acclimatised it. Nevertheless, Hervieux fully supports the statement, which I

quoted from the English work, that the Germans supplied trained singing Canaries

to a great part of Europe. To quote his own words : “ Thus it comes about that



