British and Foreign Bi>ds at Edinburgh. 119


BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIRDS AT EDINBURGH.


Bv H. Goodchild.


Those few of our members who visited the tenth annual

exhibition of the Scottish National Cage Bird Society, held in

the Corn Exchange, Grassmarket, Edinburgh, on Dec. 30th and

Jan. 1st, were rewarded, as usual, by seeing various out-of-the-

way species of birds, not always on view either at a show of

cage-birds or at the “ Zoo.”


The British section numbered 3S6 entries all told, while

the Foreign section had 93, of which, however, 39 were of

continental Goldfinches and Bullfinches.


Apart from the commonly kept Finches and Buntings,

there were not quite a hundred British birds which would interest

our members, but amongst them were some species which I never

remember seeing alive, either in a state of nature or in confine¬

ment, and which were for the most part in a condition that would

be worthy of wild birds.


The foremost place may be given to the female specimen

of the Dartford Warbler, shown by Messrs. Martin and Archer ;

surely the first time a Dartford Warbler had ever been seen alive

in Scotland. The bird seemed to feel the cold, although the

weather was very mild, for the hall was not artificially heated at

all, and at one time I thought this bird would have had to be

removed from the exhibition altogether. Along with it were

exhibited hens of the Bearded Tit, Grey Wagtail, Song Thrush,

Missel Thrush and Waxwing.


A remarkable bird was a lutino “Yellow-hammer” of a

pure yellow, as clear as a domestic canary; half-a-dozen others,

albino or semi-albino, were shown with it.


This year, the class for British Buntings contained but one

Meadow Bunting (Mr. A. W. Watson’s), although I had once

seen four or five here, there was a Black-headed Bunting (the

continental Eviberiza melanocephala ) and two Ortolans, very

sleek but not very bright in colour: also Reed, Corn and Snow

Buntings.


The smaller insectivorous birds included a very beautiful

specimen of a Black Redstait, shown by Mr. Edmund Taylor, of



