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meantime, as they rest solely on his personal opinion, which happens to be

directly contrary to my own, I refuse to believe them.


Mr. Phillipps’ letter is worthy of more serious attention, but I cannot

admit that mammals, reptiles, and fishes are sufficiently provided for in the

weekly papers he mentions and in the Zoologist. As for the weeklies, they

stand in the same position to mammals, etc. as the Feathered World does to

birds—while the Zoologist approaches the subject exclusively on its scientific

side, which we should not do. Mr. Phillipps fears that Canaries would

swamp the foreign birds—I believe his fears to be groundless, but it is

merely a matter of opinion and belief, and from its nature incapable of

proof except by experiment.


I well remember that when it was proposed to extend the U. K.

Foreign Cage Bird Society to British Birds the idea was strongly opposed

and consequently abandoned. I do not think that the interests of foreign

birds have suffered through the inclusion of British birds in the Avicultural

Society, and I believe they would be equally uninjured by the inclusion of

Canaries. Horatio R. Firemer.



ACCIDENT TO SHAMA.


Sir, — I send you the following account of an accident to my SliSma,

thinking it might possibly be of interest should any bird belonging to our

members meet with a similar mishap.


My cock Shama, “ Phil,” (about whom I wrote a short paper in the

June number, 1899) was turned into the outdoor aviary, for the summer

months, towards the end of May. He was placed with the hen bird in a

large cage, broad and high, and about five feet long. A wire partition

divided the cage in half, and I left it in temporarily so that the birds might

get used to each other before I let them fly together. I put up a nest box

among some fir branches in one corner of the cage, for as both birds are

very tame indeed I hoped they might be induced to nest. Phil seemed

much more inclined to be friendly with the hen than on their first intro¬

duction, and would sometimes sit and sing to her.


One morning, when he had been about four days in the aviary,

he was discovered to have seriously injured his right leg, which was

hanging quite useless. My man told me the bird was all right the first thing

in the morning, and when he came to the aviary an hour or two later, the

accident had happened. The bird’s nails were not long, and there were no

wires he would be likely to catch in, so we were at a loss to account for the

cause. We took all the perches from the cage, and, after lining it with a

thick bed of hay, placed poor Phil inside, and carried him indoors. He

was evidently in great pain and refused to eat, though he once bravely tried

to sing a little.


After a few hours, as he was no better, we called in Mr. Browne, a

veterinary surgeon, who very gently examined the hurt and pronounced

it a broken leg. As the fracture was quite close to the body it was

impossible to set it, and he advised it should be amputated. There seemed

small chance of keeping so active a bird quiet on the chance of it setting

naturally, and Mr. Browne assured me that if the leg remained or. there

would be less chance of Phil’s survival, and, besides, he would suffer great

agony every time he moved. I reluctantly agreed to the operation, and



