Correspondence, Notes, etc.



347



BREEDING WHITE-THROATED FINCH.


The Rev. C. D. Farrar has successfully bred the White-throated Finch,

and has prepared a full account of his experience for publication in the

Magazine. A. G. B., Ed. pro. tem.


MR. FINN AND CHINESE AVICULTURE-


Sir, —Referring to Mr. Finn’s letter in your August issue:—he

considerably discounts the value of his denial of his own statement by

the tardiness with which it appears.*


I first repeated his information in the November issue, 1903, of

Bird Notes, a magazine to which Mr. Finn was then, and has been ever

since, a subscriber. In order to carry any semblance of weight his denial

should have been forthcoming directly after this first mention of his

statement, at a time, be it borne in mind, when my interview with him of

only a week or two back was too recent for its details to have been forgotten

by either of us. But instead of that his denial has been delayed for more

than eighteen months, (during which period I have more than once repeated

his statement), and even now it only seems to have been called forth by

the fact that his recent unqualified assertions as to the “need” of egg are

found to clash with the only possible inference from his former statement

with regard to the Chinese and their methods of aviculture.


What Mr. Finn said to me was that the Chinese never gave egg in

any form to any of their birds—not even the insectivorous ones; that all

they gave was dried flies and husked millet, given dry; and that what

the Chinese did not know about bird keeping was not worth knowing.


Being told shortly afterwards that Mr. Finn had never been in China,

and that in consequence his information was only hear sa}-, and being

therefore anxious to test its value, I wrote to Mr. Heselton, who had spent

a good deal of time in that and neighbouring countries, stating what Mr.

Finn had told me. He confirmed Mr. Finn in each particular save one—

that relating to dried flies. These he said he had never seen in China,

maggots being used instead. He also made special mention of the Japs.,

during the course of the correspondence.


With the same desire to be accurate, and not wishing to be guilty of

any inadvertent misrepresentation of him, I had previously written to Mr.

Finn himself on the subject.


After thus taking every conceivable precaution against error, I felt

justified in repeating Mr. Finn’s statement, and I shall do so again as

occasion demands.


Under the present circumstances I also feel specially fortunate in

having taken the precautions I did. W. Geo. Cresweee.



* Mr. Finn denied Dr. Creswell’s statement in The Feathered World for June 30th,

1905 : perhaps he did not contradict it at first from a desire to avoid a dispute ; but when

it was repeated, deemed it necessary to do so. When there is 110 evidence in black and

white, one man’s word is allowed to be as g >d as another’s.—A.G.B.



