EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 167 



being compatible with morality, but the material 

 comes from other lands, unblessed as yet with 

 Wild Bird Protection Acts, and "individual ef- 

 forts, and thousands of centres of personal In- 

 fluence" ; It comes mainly from the tropics, where 

 men have brutish minds and birds a brilliant 

 plumage. This trade, therefore, does not greatly 

 affect the question of our native bird life, and the 

 consideration of the means, which may be within 

 our reach, of making It more to us than It now is. 

 Some species from warm and even hot climates 

 have been found to thrive well in England, 

 breeding In the open air; as, for Instance, the 

 black and the black-necked swans, the Egyptian 

 goose, the mandarin and summer ducks, and 

 others too numerous to mention. But these birds 

 are semi-domestic, and are usually kept In en- 

 closures, and that they can stand the climate and 

 propagate when thus protected from competition 

 is not strange; for we know that several of our 

 hardy domestic birds — the fowl, pea-fowl, 

 Guinea-fowl, and Muscovy duck — are tropical In 

 their origin. Furthermore, they are all compara- 

 tively large, and if they ever become feral In 

 England, it will not be for many years to come. 



