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lielp in getting freshly imported birds to live, especially if it be given after

steeping in water—and anyone who buys unacclimatised Pintails would be

-very unwise to neglect its use, if he can procure it. If Mr. Farrar alludes

to newly imported Pintails, when he says he “ never has any difficulty in

keeping them,” he has either been most unusually fortunate, or he has

discovered some secret as to treatment which all of us would like to

learn. Dr. Butler has recently recommended oats as a substitute for paddy.


(4). I do not know what fallacy, real or imaginary, Mr. Farrar is here

attacking. Everyone knows, and has known for many years, that Tanagers

can be kept quite easilj 7 on a diet of fruit and any good soft-food. Surely

no modern writer has asserted the contrary ?


Horatio R. Fieemer.



THE DONG-TAIEED COMBASOU.


Sir, —I note that the reports of the last Palace Show speak of Mr.

Fulljames’ Long-tailed Combasou as the first imported. This is an error.

Some two years ago I had one, and I made a note of it at the time, in the

Magazine; and I asked if anyone had ever before seen what I called “a

Combasou in full plumage ? ” But no one took any notice, so I was snuffed

•out. Now I find it was a great rarity (e).


C. D. Farrar.



“ A MISERABLE YOUNG CUCKOO.”


Sir,—I f Mr. D. Seth-Smitli, who reported on the British Birds at the

last Crystal Palace .Show, had seen my Cuckoo when I bought him, he

might justly have called him a miserable 3’oung Cuckoo—his breast-bone

was almost through his skin, and he was so weak that he could not fly 011

to a perch a foot from the aviary floor. Seeing the wretchedness of the

poor bird, I made him a hay nest in a wicker basket and fed him on

•chopped mealworms with my fingers. I had him near to me at night, so

.that I could conveniently feed him as soon as it was light in the morning;

he got on wonderfully well and can now fly about the aviar}'.


My object in caging him for the Show was not to get a prize (as I

knew his rough plumage would debar him from that) but to give the public

a chance of seeing a Cuckoo—and very interested they seemed in him. His

cage was a small one, but I don’t think this would cause him a.ny misery, as

he very rarely stirs from his perch, although he is in an aviary about 15 feet

.square and 18 feet high.


I will admit this much—it is folly to keep such a bird, simply because

it gives one so little pleasure. Mine never utters a sound except when he

is fighting for his food : his noise then is very much like the hissing of a

Goose. He is very laz} r , and never bathes. In fact, I have come to the

conclusion that the Cuckoo is a dirty, dull, uninteresting bird, and hardly

deserves a place in the National British Bird and Mule Club’s List; and

.should anvoue feel inclined to buy one, my advice is “ Don’t.”


A. Jones.


(e) The Eoug-tailed Combasou, belonging' to Mr. Fulljames, is distinguished from the

Common Combasou not only by the length of its tail but by the colour of its beak, which

is dark even when in full plumage. For this reason no careful observer could possibly

imagine the bird to be a mere sport, as Mr. Farrar seems to have thought his was. Can

Mr. Farrar’s bird have been something different after all ?—Ed.



