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Review.



before him, and whilst he is able to observe birds in their native

wilds in some parts of S. America, Mr. Chubb is ably assisting him

from within the walls of the Natural History Museum [South

Kensington].


It is no light affair to tackle, and such an effort deserves to

be crowned with success.


To aviculturists who have access to the work, a great boon is

the fact that English names are given to the birds as well as those

in Latin, many of the former filling bird-lovers with an extra desire

to obtain some of them as living pets. Amongst the Humming-birds

the little family Phcethornis, for example, is called “ Hermit,” of

which thirty-nine species are indexed.


Then there are the Sabre-wings, the Emeralds— [picture the

Blue-breasted Emerald! and the Blue - spotted, and the White¬

breasted and the Green-headed] — Agyrtria is the family name. And

does not a bird which is called the Blue-headed Sapphironia appeal

to you ? Go and look some of them out in the Museum cabinets —

Mr. Chubb will no doubt show them to you. But you must ask

him for L epidopyga cceruleogularis, then he’ll understand you! even

if you don’t quite do so yourself.


Oh! what treasures and flashing bejewelled feathers there

must be. “ Families ” who call themselves Erythronotes, some of

which belong to Felicia and Alice, whilst others are blue-capped, or

copper-tailed, or green-bellied, or white-breasted, and this family calls

itself Saucerottea. Dear me ! one pictures them with something saucy

about them : tails probably ! And fancy walking into a nice clean

bird-shop, and seeing eight species of delicious birds, all called

“ Sapphire,” and taking home with you a Rufous Throated Sapphire,

or a White-throated or a Red-rumped Sapphire.


One’s behaviour would be so boisterous that one would run the

risk of being hurried to the nearest lunatic asylum ! And there are

more of that genus—I only know them as Humming-birds—but with

such names, they surely must be treasures, as indeed they always

are. I read of the Blue-chinned and the Blue-breasted Sapphire ; and

hardly has one recovered from the agony of desire, when one’s eye

catches on another family known as the Wood-Nymph (Thalurania).


Imagine writing to the Editor of the Avicultural Magazine :



