79



BRITISH BIRDS AT THE PALACE.


By Thomas MarshalIv.


Ill attempting to say something respecting the 472

specimens of British birds at the 1898 Crystal Pakice gathering

of birds, and their owners, there seems such a variety of lines

to go upon that one hardly knows which will be the most

acceptable to the readers of our Magazine. To criticise the birds

is only doing what many of our members have done for them-

selves, to criticise the judging is to bring down upon one's self

the wrath of the successful exhibitor, and to write of the catering

for the exhibits is, we know from experience, an utter waste of

labour. It was to be hoped, after what I stated in the Magazine

last year, and which was afterwards borne out by Mr. Fulljames

and Mr. A. Jones, that this year the German paste abomination

would be conspicuous by its absence ; but no, there it was as

plentiful and as sticky as of 3-ore.


To come to the birds, however, the specimens staged at

this show were the best I ever looked over. Beginning with the

Bullfinches the class was one long string of grand birds, and yet

the winner (1,381) was such a superb specimen that the judge

could have no difficulty in awarding the prize ; some of his other

awards would probably have been disturbed if the two Bullfinches

wrongly entered in the Redpoll class had been in their proper

place. The winners of first, second, and third prizes in the

Goldfinch class were all the propert}^ of Mr. Williams, of Ponty-

pridd, and it is interesting to note that each of this gentleman's

birds got a prize, and also that another gentleman of the same

name did the same thing with each of his fifteen entries ! As,

however, these latter were hybrids, the}' are outside the province

of this paper. The fourth prize Goldfinch was the propertj-

of another Mr. Williams, one of our members, and was very

unlucky to be beaten.


The Chaffinches were not, as a class, very remarkable,

though there were several very good looking birds staged, and after

selecting these the judge must have had some trouble in awarding

the prizes, there being so very little to choose between them. I

thought that prizes three and four might have been reversed.

The man who wins a prize with a Chaffinch must always be

looked upon as a fortunate individual, and deserving what he

wins, as it is one of the most difficult birds to get steady (tame-

ness, as We understand the word, being out of the question).



