The Zoologist — December, 1874. 4247 



opening sentence is worthy of all commendation: — "No one who 

 has not a kind heart, thoughtful head, observant eye, and gentle 

 hand, has the least right to keep birds." Again : "There are two 

 distinct methods pursued by fanciers in regard to the manage- 

 ment of a bird, — one, the most general, to give it sufficiently little 

 attention just to keep the spark of life awake in a long-protracted 

 course of systematic tilth, disease, cold, heat, starvation and neg- 

 lect; the other, to make simple existence such a boundless delight 

 that your tiny protege appears to have learned the secret of per- 

 petual motion as well as that of endless song." Again: "Never 

 forget that intense cleanliness is almost more of an absolute 

 necessity to the happiness, nay, very existence, of chamber birds 

 than even seed and water." This, perhaps, is going a little too 

 far, but still it is in the right direction. Again, in the instructions 

 about cages, the author very pleasantly and judiciously says, "Let 

 the destined occupants be your principal consideration — their 

 welfare, number, size, and habits ; and endeavour to choose a home 

 that will serve as a frame and set-off to their attractions and 

 enhancement to their happiness and conduce to their health." 

 The italics are the author's, who goes on to recommend plain 

 German metallic enamelled cages, square and unornamented, 

 because this style of cage, " first and foremost, serves to set-off 

 the bird in a manner none else ever do ; then it is an admirable 

 contrast to the ornament and furniture of a handsome sitting-room, 

 let alone the advantage it is iii every other respect to its occupant's 

 own welfare, health, and happiness, after all the consideration par 

 excellence to the bond Jide bird-lover." The recommendation to 

 exclude draughts, baking hot walls, excessive heat, northerly and 

 easterly breezes, and frosty nights, and the instructions about 

 food, are equally good, and so is the chapter on " Personal 

 Characteristics." From this I shall make a long quotation, in 

 order that my readers may thus become thoroughly acquainted 

 with the writer's style as well as disposition. 



" No person, except those who have kept birds for any length of time, 

 and have studied them carefully, could ever suppose or imagine tbe immense 

 diversity of ' character ' that exists even amongst tbe same species of our 

 domestic and commonest feathered favourites. Tbe contradictory qualities 

 exhibited in an aviary containing only half a dozen birds, affords amuse- 

 ment sufficient to while away many an idle hour. How inquisitive, active, 

 imitative, affectionate, and ' larky ' are some ! others, again, greedy, selfish, 



