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course in a large aviary like mine there is much less quarrelling than there

would be in a smaller one. I often think that if I had time, and sufficient

space to give each pair of birds a separate aviary, I would undertake to

breed any birds that have ever yet been imported. Many of my readers

will think that this is rather extravagant, but the more I see of the

marvellous adaptability of foreign birds to their surroundings, the more I

am convinced that we do not know half their capabilities in this direction.


In this aviary I have succeeded in breeding Red and Mealy Rosellas,

Turquoisines, Elegants, Budgerigars,Virginian Cardinals. Pekin Nightingales

(not reared), Zebra Finches, Goldfinches, Bullfinches, and Greenfinches.



THE ETHICS OF EXHIBITING.


V.


By C. S. Simpson.


There appears to be no subject, in the whole range of practical

aviculture, upon which more diverse opinions are held than the question

Whether it is justifiable or not to send birds to shows. While both sides

have been fairly and moderately put forward in the September Magazine, it

may possibly be expebled that I. as one of the judges at the Crystal Palace

Show, should express my opinion.


It seems to me that the out-and-out anti-exhibitor proves too much :

he tells us that it is cruel to confine birds in small cages, cruel to send them

on long railway journeys, and cruel to expose them to the heat and draughts

of the show room. Exhibitors may fairly retort (ist) that it is neither

necessary nor desirable to exhibit birds in very small cages, inasmuch as

they show to much greater advantage in moderately large cages, (2nd) that

the great majority of exhibits are not sent on long railway journeys, and

(3rd) that it is quite practicable to maintain a sufficiently even temperature in

the show room. But, waiving these points, let me admit the arguments of

the anti-exhibitor, and carry them to their logical conclusion. It is cruel,

we are told, to confine a bird in a small cage and to send it on a journey of

(at most) a few hours! How much greater then must be the cruelty of

crowding birds together by hundreds in miserable boxes, and sending them

on a journey lasting weeks or months. It is cruel to expose a bird to the

variations of temperature of a show room ! But is there no cruelty in

transporting a bird from the climate of Australasia or West Africa to the

climate of the East end bird shop or the suburban drawing room ? Granted,

that a bird occasionally (but rarel)') dies from the effects of a show: is it not

a fact that hundreds die from the effects of their importation ? Truly the

opponent of shows strains at a gnat and swallows a camel. If it be cruel and

unjustifiable to send birds to shows, it is a thousand times more cruel and

more unjustifiable to import foreign birds at all.


While no practical aviculturist can doubt that birds kept in aviaries

and cages become very quickly reconciled to their new surroundings and

cau be made perfectly happy, it is useless to shut our ej^es to the fact that

captivity does at first involve much unhappiness to the captive, not

infrequently resulting in its death. I can understand the man who holds

it wrong to keep birds in captivity, though I do not agree with him ; but I

cannot understand the aviculturist who encourages the capture and impor¬

tation of birds, and at the same time blames the exhibitor who sends his

birds a few miles to a show. Personally I have sent many birds to shows,

and (with one exception) cannot recollect any bird that was in any way the

worse. I believe that exhibiting, within certain limits, is perfectly justifiable,

but I do not consider it right to exhibit birds too often, or to send them too

far. My own rule is never to send a bird on a journey of more than a few

hours, and never to exhibit the same bird more than three times in one

season.



