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of the birds seemed to us very dark. No. 1664 (1st) was, however,

a beauty, although rather wild.


Class 89 (Linnet) was another large class with many good

birds, Mr. Prior taking 1st with a splendid specimen, which

was perhaps a little restless, but otherwise perfect. No. 1693

(4th) was a very dark bird, and should not, we think, have been

in the money.


Class 90 (Twite). This, if we mistake not, is a new class,

and the entries quite justified its existence. Mr. Prior again

takes 1st, though the 2nd prize bird ran it close ; they were all

rather wild.


Class 91 (Lesser Redpoll). Formerly it used to be a rule

that preference should be given to cage-moulted birds; and,

although we can find no such rule now, it seems a pity that it

should have been dropped. The 1st prize was in this case

bestowed 011 the only “recently-caught” specimen, presumably

on account of its red breast. The 2nd prize went to a beautiful

Mealy ! which should have been marked wrong class, and we

are thus driven to Mr. Edwards’ beautiful Lesser lor the true

champion of the class.


Class 92 (Siskin) a nice clean class, the 1st prize going to

a real beauty. There were many colour-fed monstrosities in this

class, of which more anon.


Class 93 (Brambling), Class 94 (Hawfinch). These classes

were both moderately filled, and contained some splendid birds;

a few of the Bramblings were rather wild, but nevertheless in

good plumage.


Class 95 (Greenfinch). Had we been judging this class

we would have passed over more than half as being colour-fed

monstrosities ; in this species, more than in any other, the

colour is not only intensified but altered by the process of

colour-feeding. The question as to whether the result is an

improvement on nature or not is of necessity a matter of

opinion ; but it seems to us that when one goes to look at a class

of British birds, one expects to see the birds as nature coloured

them, and not as they are made by man’s devices. There is to

our mind but a narrow line between “ painting” and “ colour¬

feeding.” Why cannot the colour-fed birds be judged in a class

to themselves? they are separated in Canaries, and it is mani¬

festly unfair that they should not be so in British birds. No.

1S36 was the best, and 1839 was also a good bird: the money all

went to “ impossibilities in nature.”


Class 96 (Yellow-hammer), Class 97 (A. O. V. Resident



