490 IMhllograpliical Notice. 



Ill a book of instractioii it is, before all things, important that 

 statements made should be up-to-date ; therefore, if the authoress, 

 instead of abusing aviculturists, had taken them into lier oouncils, 

 she might have avoided the repetition of exploded fallacies. On 

 p. 88 she observes : — " The bird-caging public, wlio employ the bird- 

 catcher, are more to be blamed than he, since they merely gratify a 

 caprice, and have not even the pretext of earning a living by it. 

 That the Nightingale seldom long survives caging merely raises his 

 price in the market, but does not deter the trade " *. In his preface 

 the Eev. Canon Tristram rightly states that there are certain non- 

 preventable causes, which he specifies, for the decrease in the 

 numbers of certain birds ; and I would add that it is to these, and 

 not to the bird-catcher, that we must attribute the reduction of our 

 IS^ightingales and Goldfinches. 



Is it true that the bird-caging miscreant of the present day 

 imprisons his feathered pets to gratify a mere caprice ? I trow not. 

 ISo bird can be thoroughly studied in all its ways when at liberty. 

 To understand it one must keep it in flight-cage or aviary, watch 

 every action, record every note, both when single and mated. When 

 this has been exhaustively done in the case of everj- species, the 

 useful work of the bird-catcher may be stopped without injury to 

 mankind — not that his trade makes one iota of difference to the 

 number of birds inhabiting these islands. 



Before leaving this little book, I should like to call attention to 

 one or two statements which need confirmation ; personally I am 

 very sceptical as to their credibility. According to Sweet, quoted 

 by Macgillivray, quoted by the authoress, the Garden-Warbler is 

 very fond of the larva of Ganons brassiere. 1 do not know any bird 

 (and I have kept a minimum of over three hundred for some years) 

 which will eat this caterpillar. I have no doubt that the larva of 

 the small cabbage-butterfly is intended. 



Woodlice are said to be eaten by numerous birds, but very few 

 seem to cure for them ; they are almost invariably ignored. 



The caterpillar of the buft-tip moth is said to be eaten by the 

 Kuthatch : luit my Xuthatch would not touch it. 



Haiiy caterpillars are said to be rejected by every bird but the 

 Cuckoo ; yet most of my Thrushes of various species have eaten them 

 greedily. 



The Wagtail is said to be very destructive to the turnip-beetle ; 

 yet when I had three species of Wagtails, and tried them all with 

 these beetles, they rejected them with disgust, as did every other 

 bird t. 



The Nightingale is said not to live long in a cage ; but this is 

 almost as great a fallacy as it would be to make the same statement 

 respecting a Canary. 



It is suggested that the Cuckoo not onl)' sucks eggs, but devours 

 fruit and seeds. Perhaps it is as well that the kind-hearted 

 authoress is not an aviculturist. 



* A freshly caught Nightingale is worth about 3s. ijcl. 

 t This statement is merely the guess of an entomologist, and a page 

 and a half are devoted to enlarging upon it. 



