For Love of Birds. 203


FOR LOVE OF BIRDS.


By Katharine Currey.


In a Review in the January number of a little pamphlet

“ For Love of Beasts,” published by the Wild Birds’ Protection

Society, the pamphlet in question is accused of hindering the ad¬

vancement of Science by calling attention to many acts of cruelty

to animals and biids that go on unchecked, not only in this country-

I have read the little brochure, and can only find in it a protest—

which every naturalist could not but endorse—against needless or self¬

ish cruelty : but no ‘ hit ’ aimed at a legitimate study of animal life.


As an aviculturist, I for one, should be inexpressibly thankful

if a law against the wanton and indiscriminate capture and improper

caging of birds were put into force ; a strict supervision of dealers’

shops made compulsory, and bird traffic relegated to those dealers

who recognize their duty towards the inferior Creation, and under¬

stand the nature and needs of the birds they sell.


The Review further advises that such protests as appear in

the pamphlet were best directed against the plumage traffic, and the

wholesale slaughter of beautiful birds for the milliners’ shops.


Fiendishly barbarous as this slaughter unquestionably is, and

for which there is no shadow of excuse (for the plumage of game

or poultry would answer their purpose just as well) is the fate of

the birds caught alive in millions to furnish the dealers’ shops

one whit less pitiable ? I think, if possible, it is even more so, for

whereas the poor birds caught for their plumage are at all events put

out of their misery, those destined for sale alive have to linger on in

suffering—suffering of the very worst kind that can be imagined,

the bird being deprived of every condition of life suitable to its

needs in the shops of those dealers who are quite ignorant of the

requirements of the birds they sell, and only deal in them for gain.

A more flagrant injustice could never be perpetrated on a living

creature. No one knows better than the aviculturist that the needs

of a bird are fresh air, space to fly, clean water to drink and bathe

in, and food and fresh soil suited to its nature.


What then is the lot of birds in such shops ? Imprisonment in

a cage, too often not large enough for it to turn in, and never cleaned ;



