53



World announcing that the Manager of the Crystal Palace had promised to

adopt our definition, and my letter appeared in that paper on the 4th of

December. A few days after, I received the following letter from the

Manager, dated the 7th of December: “ Since writing you to say I would

have a notice re Standard for British Birds printed in the Schedule for 1S97,

I have had several letters protesting against the adoption of any such rule,

and I have also taken the opinion of the judges, who also consider that it

would not be advisable to publish any rule. Under the circumstances,

therefore, I shall leave the definition of a British bird to the judges, and

shall not print anything in the Schedule.” To that letter I replied as

follows : “ I think the Society has serious ground to complain of the course

which you have pursued. In mj^ last letter I asked you to give the matter

‘ a little further consideration before j-ou decide finally against it,’ but I

did not ask you to at once pledge yourself to adopt the rule. However, in

your next letter you distinctly and unconditionally promised to adopt it,

and if, in so doing without consulting the judges, you acted unwisely, it

was not my fault. Now, after you have led me into announcing in the

Feathered World that you are going to adopt the Society’s rule 3 r ou withdraw

from your promise and make the Society look extremely foolish. I consider

that you have treated the Society very badly.”


I do not wish to make any comment, in this place, on what has

occurred, but I think everyone will agree with me that, if the Manager was

bound to defer to the opinion of the judges, he ought to have consulted

them in the first place.


By the same post as that by which I wrote to the Manager of the

Crj^stal Palace, I wrote to the Hon. Secretary of the National British Bird

and Mule Club, informing him of the adoption of the definition by our

Society, and inviting the co-operation of the Club in getting it generally

adopted. I added, “ I should have much preferred previously to submit

the matter to your Society,” (before writing to the Manager of the Crystal

Palace) “but as the time before the issue of their Schedule is now very

short, I did not think it would be possible to do so without abandoning all

hope of getting the rule into next year’s Schedule.”


It is important to bear in mind that the primary object of the rule

is that it may be a guide in the general affairs of the Societ} r , and that its

adoption or rejection as a Show rule will not affect its usefulness in other

ways.


Some letters on this subject appear in the Correspondence Columns

this month.


Horatio R. Firtmer, Hon. Sec.



AVICULTURAL SMALL-TALK.



There are now, or were recently, some ver}^ rare new arrivals at the

Zoo. A pair of Franklin’s Gulls (.Lams franklini) are the first of their species

to- make their appearance in Regent’s Park. The same may be said of the

pair of White Rheas, which were only at the Gardens for a short visit on

their way to the residence of their owner (Mr. Walter Rothschild) at

Tring. The Common Rhea, the Great-billed Rhea, and Darwin’s Rhea,

have all been seen at the Zoo, but the White Rhea never before. The bird



