374



Correspondence, Notes, etc.



The filth, with its accompanying horrible smells, and the want of fresh

air in some of our English bird-dealers’ shops are most objectionable;

and also quite inexcusable, considering that it is their profession. But

perhaps just as there are dirty houses and clean houses, so too with the

bird shops.


The result of this slovenly and dirty way of keeping the birds must

mean disease and a large accumulation of parasites, both of which are only

too often, when birds are purchased, carried into aviaries, there to spread

disastrously. I went to four bird shops at Frankfort-on-Main, every one of

which was beautifully clean and sweet.


There were not so many birds as one sees in some of the English

shops, but I would far sooner see two or three genuine pairs of Japanese

Robins (to take an example) in good plumage and well kept, than a hundred

of these birds, minus tails and flight feathers, often clotted with dirt, with

perhaps two or three dead ones lying in the filth at the bottom of the cage,

and the drinking water looking as if it had been taken from a sewer.


What it must be to the poor birds after luxuriating in pure fresh air

(day and night), after washing in clear streams and pools, after good food

obtained amongst leafy trees and cool grass, I can’t imagine.


H. D. ASTEEY.



THE EGGS OF THE GREY SINGING-FINCH, &c.


Sir, —If my small experience is of any value, I may say that my

Grey Singing-finches had four eggs in their first nest (see May number) and

hatched four young. In the next nest there were three eggs, one hatched

and in the third, three clear eggs, they were then moulting (July).


All the eggs were creamy white, entirely without spots.


I once had a pair of Bearded Seedeaters (see page 5, vol. 6), their

eggs were spotted at the larger end, and were somewhat like Canaries’

eggs, they were alwaj’S four in number.


Grace Ashford.


Sir, —Mr. F. H. Rudkin sends me an excellent photograph of the

nest of the Grey Singing-finch built in a Hartz cage hanging on the wires

of his aviary : he says—“ Eggs four in number, white finely spotted with

black at larger end.” A. G. Bu'i'EER.


AMHERSTS AND GOLDEN PHEASANTS.


Sir, —Yesterday, a male Amherst killed a male Golden Pheasant, in

a few moments, while I was sitting in another part of the garden. The

birds had been in the same aviary for nearly two years, and had always been

perfectly friendly. Another Golden Pheasant is now in the same aviary,

and they are perfectly quiet; is it safe to leave this one without making a

wire division in the run ? I had hesitated to do this as it so curtails space ;



