23


never to exhibit under such circumstances. The room was

close, dull, and dark ; the air loaded with tobacco-smoke, and

unhealthy. Many of the cages, especially those of the Parrots,

were high up in the heated air and their occupants evidently

suffering for want of fresh air. Many of the finest birds were

dejected and depressed in appearance, and offered by no means

a cheerful sight. I am not an exhibitor, I have no wish to gain

prizes; but I do love birds for their own sake, and most

sincerely I pitied many of the lovely birds in this Show that

were suffering from travel, exposure, confinement, and bad air.

I hope Messrs. Kneen and Forsyth will not lose their beautiful

Swallow (932) but I doubt whether either of them would have been

at all happy, if they love their bird, could they have seen it 011

the day that I was there, and watched it gasp for breath. There

were some fine Song Thrushes, but they were so in the dark that

one could hardly see them : and yet this fate was preferable to the

heat, smoke, and light in the Aquarium when lit up at night. I

find no fault with the managers, they did their best; but I

recommend no real bird-lover to go to the Show save as a bird-

fancier, for to the naturalist the sight is a sad one, and sufficient

to start a very strong theory as to the ethics of bird exhibiting.


The Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Ifinnets, and Siskins were

fairly comfortable and resigned to their lot.


The stronger Parrots would probably not suffer, but the

more delicate and sensitive English song-birds do, I am con¬

vinced, suffer very much at such shows as the one that I visited.


Many exhibitors had thoughtfully affixed labels to their

cages, desiring that the birds should not be fed, or at least fed

only on certain food. It is quite useless, certain visitors feed every

bird indiscriminately; and nuts, sponge cake, biscuit, apple-peel,

orange-peel, currants, buns, sultanas, bread, sugar, and sweets

are offered to birds by careless, foolish visitors, just as they

fancy, wholly careless of instructions or of knowledge of the

bird’s proper food. Food is sometimes stuffed into the bird’s

bill: as, for example, I saw a piece of walnut pressed into the

mouth of the Swallow, when all he wanted was air ; and the

wonder is, that any bird ever survives this indiscriminate feeding,

the noisome air, and the intolerable heat.


My notes are scattered and written in haste. The exhi¬

bition was interesting, many of the birds of great beauty ; but,

as I have already said, to one who loves the bird for the bird’s

sake, it was a very painful and grievous sight.



