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A WARNING TO PURCHASERS OF INSECTIVOROUS


BRITISH BIRDS.


[The following letter appeared ill the Feathered World of the 31st July.

The writer, who prefers to remain pseudonymous, is a well-known

member of the Avicultural Society. The letter is here reprinted at

the request of several members, with the consent of both the author

and the Editor of the Feathered Wo/Id.]


Sir,—I venture to hope for your powerful support in a matter which

must appeal to all lovers of birds. Some little cruelty is, unfortunately,

inseparable from every attempt to keep in a cage a bird that has been born

in its natural freedom. Although this is so, yet some kinds of birds so

easily adapt themselves to confinement, that, with discretion, the cruelty is

reduced to a minimum; and if our little prisoners be intelligently looked

after, they soon forget that they have ever been free, and become quite as

happy in a suitable cage as though they had never known a different life.

Fanciers of British birds, however, know, of course, that we very seldom

see in bird-shops specimens of Wagtails, Willow-wrens, Wood-wrens

Chiffchaffs, Wheatears, Whincliats, Stonechats, Flycatchers, Hedge-warblers’

or Redstarts. This is entirely due to the exceeding difficulty of “ meating

off” these charming little creatures. The bird dealers will not be troubled

with them, not from any consideration for the birds, but because of the fact

that they die off before they can be disposed of. The professional bird

catchers, therefore, do not find it worth their while to keep those which

accidentally come in their way. For the past three seasons I have noticed

in the Fancy papers advertisements, mostly emanating from one individual

living near King’s Cross, offering these birds at prices ranging from 3s. to 5s.

each. From the repeated appearance of the advertisements, and from the

prices asked, I ultimately concluded that the advertiser was a man who

made a speciality of caging these birds ; but I fortunately paid a visit to the

establishment instead of sending a P.O. What I saw there was sufficient to

touch the heart of any mortal soul but a bird catcher. Scores of these

delicate creatures were in stock from the previous day’s catching; and,

while I was in the shop the proprietor came in with a fresh lot. Then I

found how this inhuman being got his living. In reply to his advertise¬

ments he received daily applications for birds, and the prices were such as

to make it worth his while to go out especially to catch the birds written

for. It is needless to state that upon such expeditions “ all was grist that

came to the mill.” Nothing was set free, ever}’ unfortunate captive being

brought home in the hope that it might be sold while yet alive. The

certainty that scarcely one in a hundred of those sent .away would live for

twenty-four hours made no difference to the advertiser, nor did the fact

that those he succeeded in selling did not represent a tithe of those

originally caught and sacrificed. There is little doubt that, unless steps be

taken to prevent it, the inhuman practice will sooner or later find imitators,

as it will be evident from the continued appearance of the advertisements

that the game is a paying one; and my hope in writing this letter is, in the

first place, to induce the Editors of the various Fancy papers to forego a few

pence weekly with a view’of preventing, by closing the market, the wholesale-

massacre of our summer migrants ; and, in the second place, to caution

fanciers that they are buying, at the price of “ meated off " specimens, birds



