THE



Bvicultural fllbaga^tn^


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. II. — NO. 17.



All rights reserved.



MARCH, 1896.



BRITISH BIRDS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.


By J. Tkwis Bonhote.


Once more tlie Crystal Palace Show is over, the great

event in the cage bird year is passed ; hopes of such and such

a bird raised by his exhibitor have either been realised or dashed

to the ground, and it now remains for us to consider whether

those hopes had been rightly or wrongly founded.


The classes were well filled, the quality good, and the

judging on the whole fair ; although, as we shall see, there were

several cases in which the judge did not know his own mind.

There was one thing I noticed more this year than in former

years, which was that in walking along the rows of cages I could

have picked out and gathered together the cages of several

exhibitors. One exhibitor put blotting paper at the bottom of

his cages ; another had his cages painted a peculiar shade

while several had writing relating to the feeding of the birds-

pasted on the front ; another, I suppose that the judge might

not recognise his writing, had the notices printed, thereby

rendering his cage all the more conspicuous ; while lastly,

in one or two cases the labels were left attached. Far be it from

me to imply that anything was meant by these marks, but, if

once allowed, it opens a high road to collusion between judge and

exhibitor, which should not be.


The Bullfinches were a good class and difficult to judge,,

and many of high merit were left unnoticed. No. 1241, which

took first, was very good in size and colour, but rather wild, and

I preferred the second prize bird, No. 1243, although it had lost

some primaries in the left wing. I was delighted to see the third

prize awarded to No. 1219, a hen, which was a large good-coloured

and steady bird, but would have looked better in a show cage.

I hope this marks the beginning of an epoch, when hens, if of

good merit, may stand an equal chance with their more brightly

coloured mates.



