Correspondence.



379



I felt at home with my last guard. Again we discussed the

time-worn European situation ; we grew into brothers and friends

over Alsace Lcnraine, and as the train flew its corners, its whistle

screaming to the heavens, we talked of aviation and branched off to

motor bandits.


I have come to mistrust such catch words as “ The Entente

Cordiale,” but in this case I believe there is much more in it than

the words convey. That “ much more ” being borne home to me in

the guard’s van !


Dover,—sober and grey, and a home-grown Kentish guard

twenty-five years on the railway, brought this journey to an end.

But short as it was, the two hours run to town was full of interest ;

and again, in the intervals of feeding and discussing the birds in my

care, we talked of the things we both knew and of the land we both

called our own. In this case it was bounded narrowly, for Northum¬

berland and Devon were a whole world away. Nevertheless we

were at one.


And I count it not the least of my experiences to have

travelled often and in many lands with the guards in the guard’s

van.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ®c.


NOTES FROM CANON DUTTON’S AVIARIES.


My breeding results have not been very good this year. A pair of Malabar

Parakeets (Palceornis columboides ) laid two eggs, but they did not hatch, and I

rather think they were not fertile. A pair of P. docilis had three nice young ones,

but deserted them. I found out afterwards they had been too much looked at.

These were followed by two young cyanocephalus, one a rickling. They were left

unobserved till old enough to take. The rickling died in time. The survivor is

a nice sturdy bird, and a pair of Diamond Sparrows had five eggs. Two

hatched but were found dead. They have another nest now (August).


A VISIT TO AN INTERESTING COLLECTION OF “SOFT-BILLS.”


SIR, — Through the kindness of my bird-dealer’s wife, I recently spent a

most pleasant afternoon visiting the varied and excellently-kept collection of

Soft-bills, which a customer of theirs makes his special hobby.


As he is a medical man and too busy himself to undertake the rearing of



