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Arthur’s grand Mexican Jay. Mr. Maxwell’s Long-tailed Glossy

Starling was fourth : it had a somewhat rough tail; but the

difficulty of keeping birds with such long tails in perfect feather

in cages is very great, and the judge probably considered this

point before awarding the prize.


There were other good birds in this class, but with the

above rarer species to compete against, they had to take a back

seat. There were two Green Glossy Starlings, each of which

received V.H.C. ; a pair of common Brown Mynahs (H.C.) ; a

pair of the somewhat uninteresting Military Troupials (V.H.C.) ;

a Black - backed Piping Crow (H.C.) ; and a female Black

Tanager, which was, apparently, not noticed by the judge, for it

should have been marked “Wrong Class.” I was sorry not to

see either species of Hill Mynah represented here.


Class 114 (Any species of insectivorous or fruit eating

bird not previously mentioned). This was a grand class and

consisted of no less than thirty entries, four of which were,

however, absent, whilst a fifth should have been elsewhere.


Mr. Humphrys again carried off the palm in this class,

his beautiful Garrulous Honey-eaters being easily first. It will

be remembered that a full account of these rare birds, written

by their fortunate owner, appeared in No. 26 of this Magazine.

They are certainly delightful birds, and were, moreover, seen to

the best advantage in their very room}^ cage, With reference

to cages, of course those exhibitors who live but a short way

from the Palace have a distiudt advantage over those who live at

a distance and have to trust their birds to the tender mercies of

railway porters. The former can afford to show their birds in

large roomy cages, whereas, to the latter, the carriage by rail

would be no small item of expense.


Mrs. Henderson well deserved the second prize for a very

good specimen of the somewhat rare Lettered Aracari. The

third prize went to Mr. Humphrys’ Australian Bell-bird, an

exceedingly pretty creature. A Yellow-tufted Honey-eater, sent

by the same gentleman as the last, was, like all his exhibits, well

shown and in perfedt condition, and worthy of more than V.H.C.,

but it had to stand aside for Mr. Osbaldeston’s Green-billed

Toucan : a grand bird, which received the fourth prize. An

Ariel Toucan, belonging to the same gentleman, received V.H.C.

Two pairs of Zosterops were exhibited, and a very nice Wax-

wing (H.C.) of which species, by the way, there was an example

in a British class. Mr. Fulljames’ beautiful Shama (V.H.C.)

was the only representative of this very delightful species.



