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THE PALACE SHOW.


By Reginald Phieeipps.


Mr. Bonhote’s remarks on the Grey Wagtails and other

Birds raise the question as to where the line, for judging purposes,

should be drawn between migratory and non-migratory species,

for there are not a few that we commonly regard as non-migratory

of which a number of the members troop off to the Mediterranean,

Algeria, &c., and the remainder move far away from their sum¬

mer resorts : those members of the different species which pass

the warmer months in our southern counties going still farther

south at the approach of winter, their places being taken by

hardier specimens which have been breeding, and probably were

bred, more to the north, or possibly in Northern Germany,

Denmark, or even Scandinavia. In just a few species it may be

that every member which passes the summer in this country goes

abroad ; but the absence of these individuals is not noticed, for

we see numbers about, which we think the same, but which are

immigrants from colder climes, like our familiar friends the

Fieldfare and Redwing.


Now all these are “ migratory ” species, so far as the Palace

■Show is concerned, some of the members of the several species

being likewise Birds of Passage ; and, consequently, not only the

Grey and Pied Wagtails (for the latter also migrate in the narrow

sense of the word) but many another so-called “resident” species

should be exhibited in the migratory classes so long as the latter

are erroneously headed “ Birds of Passage and Migratory Birds.”


The uncertainty prevailing as to how birds will be judged

must keep away many an exhibit from the shows: Mr. Bonliote

brings a few eccentricities in judging under notice. And un¬

certainty also occurs in connection with Waxwings, Bearded Tits,

&c. This year not a Waxwing appeared ; and no wonder if its

previous treatment at the Palace be considered. Bast } r ear

several very good Bearded Tits were exhibited in the A.O.V.

British, and also in a migratory, class ; they were not marked

Wrong Class in either, but were ignored because (so I was told)

they were foreigners. This year they were received and

noticed in the A.O.V. British class; and yet I think I may

venture to assert as a faCt that not only these individual birds but

all the Bearded Tits and Waxwings ever exhibited in this country

have been foreigners.


It will be seen therefore that, in respedt of migratoiy and

foreign “British” birds, it is impossible, from the nature of

things, for any judge to judge alwa3 r s correct^ ; but that is not



