60 



Chafl&nches, is excessive, and the usages in vogue inflict much 

 unnecessary suflfering besides waste of life. Thousands of these 

 seed-eaters, overcrowded and ill-tended, die whilst stUl in the 

 shops of the catchers and dealers ; and few long survive their 

 sale, because of the want of knowledge and want of care of the 

 purchasers. A Linnet and a cage complete for sixpence — vide 

 the advertisements in the trade journals. How many last 

 three months in their mouse-trap prisons ? Large numbers of 

 Goldfinches, Siskins, and also insect-eaters, are imported from 

 abroad. Austria has now prohibited the export of wild birds, 

 but nevertheless they still arrive thence in London, usually 

 mixed mth canaries, to give colour to the description of the 

 consignment. Woodlarks, those superlative songsters, never 

 common anywhere, are imported from Belgium during October, 

 and retailed in London at eighteenpence each. They are delicate 

 larks, ill-adapted for popular keeping, and those from Belgium 

 usually bear traces of bird-lime, which in itself seems to break 

 the spirit of the more fragile species, and from which they often 

 do not recover ; just as cats will pine from disgust after having 

 become soiled with a substance they cannot remove. 



As is well kno\Mi, many A\dld birds mil thrive for long years as 

 cage pets, and it is not the taste for chamber birds that needs 

 discouraging, but the wholesale catching of them, and dealing 

 in them, and the lessened value and appreciation caused thereby. 

 The present \vriter lately saw in the shop of a London dealer 

 a Hoopoe, Avhich had been sold to a lady a few days previously. 

 She had brought it back dead, saying she had tried it with every 

 kind of seed, but it would not eat. Such an abuse of a beautiful 

 creature would hardly be possible in Austria-Hungary or 

 Germany, where the taking and keeping of song birds, in itself 

 justifiable, is properly restricted and controlled. 



A side issue of the question of preservation has received 

 recognition in some parts of Germany by the imposition of a tax 

 on cats. Ornamental as a cat is in a parlour, and useful as it 

 may be in a stable or warehouse, in the garden and in the country 

 it is an inveterate hunter ; and by reason of its agility and in- 

 credible patience it is very destructive, especially as a nest 

 robber. A boon would be conferred on men and ground game, 

 on birds and on cats, if such a tax were made general in aU 

 countries. Cats themselves would gain in being better cared for, 

 and the payment of the tax could be easily-controlled by issuing 

 a numbered metal disc, of different colour or shape each year, 

 to be affixed to the animal's collar. Stray cats, generally half- 

 starved, often mischievous to poultry, etc., would thus soon 

 become rare. In Germany the tax is only one mark for the first 

 cat, two for the second, and so on. 



