S5



and its left leg had at one time been broken ; 1,346, 3rd, was a

very good bird, but I should call it a small foreigner; it is of

course a matter on which one cannot be quite certain, and I have

no doubt the judge drew his conclusions carefully before

awarding it a prize; 1,341, was a specially fine bird and ought to

have been noticed.


Class 85 (Goldfinches) was a very strong class, almost all the

birds being of high merit, and the judging, which can have been

no easy task, was creditably done.


Class 86 (Chaffinches) was a small class; only two

approached a typical bird, namely 1,444, which was 3rd, its only

fault being that it was wild, and 1,450, which was unnoticed.

All the rest were far too dark and deserved no notice whatever.


Class 87 (Linnets) was a large class, but it ought not to

have been hard to judge ; 1,470, 2nd, was by far the best;

1,497, 3 r d> being also a good bird ; while the next best was 1,468,

H.C. ; 1,479, 1st, was very dark and as unlike the typical wild

Linnet as a Mealy Redpoll.


Class 88 (Redpolls). At the beginning of the catalogue I

read “Preference in judging will be given to cage-moulted

specimens.” I11 accordance (?) with this rule the one bird in this

class not cage-moulted takes first. There were also several

beautiful Lesser Redpolls, all of which were unnoticed. The

best bird in the class was 1,512, though it may possibly have been

colour-fed ; 1,510, 2nd, was the next best.


Class 89 (Siskins). The prizes all went to colour-fed birds.

Whatever may be said to the contrary, I feel sure that this is a

wrong system; the only standard we can take by which to judge

a British Bird is that of its wild brethren, who never assume the

beautiful (?) colour of 1,517 and 1,518, the first and second. The

best bird in the class was 1,527.


Again there is a “boom” in Skylarks, which were well

represented this year; 1,537, 2u d, was the best, being a fine slim

upstanding bird, while 1,542 ought to have been second.


Class 91 (Robins) was a good class ; 1,552, 1st, being a

specially fine bird, next to him I preferred 1,547.


The Hybrid Class (No. 96) brought forth nothing very

striking, most of them being Bullfinch-Goldfinch or Bullfinch-

Linnet. Among the others were Greenfinch-Linnet, Twite-

Linnet, Goldfinch-Greenfinch, wild bred; and a Siskin-Redpoll,

Greenfinch-Bullfinch, artificially produced. First went to a fine

Linnet-Bullfinch ; 2nd, to a Bullfinch-Goldfinch ; and 3rd, to a



