204



For Love of Birds.



a stifling, foeted atmosphere, owing to thousands of filthy cages with

many diseased birds in them; gaslight flaring into their eyes for hours

when the little head should be tucked under the wing in the restful

dark ; no fresh water—often no water ; and, in place of the sweet

fresh grass or earth, filth accumulated, on which too often quite the

wrong food, sour and tainted, is thrown. Is it possible to imagine

greater torture for a creature so exquisitely and delicately organised

as a bird ? And, alas ! this is no fanciful picture, hut a stern and

hideous reality, in a country that boasts of a high state of civiliza¬

tion ! Aviculture is a fascinating pursuit, and enables man and his

little bird brother to know and love each other, but as a Wild Birds’

Protectionist, I often have heart-searching's not only as to whether

aviculture justifies the forcible detention of cretures to whom free

dom is a birthright, and for which their whole nature and being are

adapted, but in the thought, that by the purchase of even one little

bird, I am indirectly contributing to all this suffering by helping to

make a market, even though I may have bought it only to set it free !


Then there is another side to the picture. Vast host of

birds perish annually during migration, or fall a prey to their natural

enemies, of whom they have always to live in fear, and thousands

die of starvation during a severe winter. Compare the lot of a bird

in a happy home, with its natural surroundings and a kind human

friend to care for it, with that of those I have just mentioned. A

life of liberty would not seem to be a state of unmixed bliss. The

study of birds is a beautiful and interesting pursuit under humane

conditions, but are the means employed to arrive at it humane ?

We know they are not, and that the suffering and waste of bird-life

is ghastly and appalling. It surely lies with the aviculturist there¬

fore to endeavour to remedy this evil. It is a responsibility we

cannot shake off if we would.


The Review I have alluded to deals also with the question of

the alleged great inferiority of a birds’ mental faculties to those of

man, even denying that a bird has memory, and cares only for its

food supply, plus of course kind treatment. But if a bird is a

creature of such limited understanding, and so extremely uninterest¬

ing, what is there in aviculture to learn, as its physical structure is

well known ?



