138 Foreign Birds at the Crystal Palace Show.


lasting, in fact lie would sing till the tongue became swollen,

when a little honey would soon right matters.


The Poe is a brush-ton gued bird and easily catered for, if

kept under proper conditions, the main things being plenty of

room for exercise, cleanliness, regular bath and not over-feeding.

Should the latter be abused by over stimulating foods the bird

will have fits, which must be checked by sprinkling him with

cold water, then giving him a dose of magnesia and reducing his

food on to a plainer diet.


I kept my bird in constant song and in the best of plumage

on the following diet: 8ozs. boiled bullock’s liver grated, 8ozs,

sponge cake, 40ZS. best ants’ egg, 30ZS. flake egg and 2 ozs. honey.

O11 alternate days I gave boiled potatoes mixed with a little flake

egg, also fruit in abundance. I have seen it extract juice from

an orange until the same was completely dried up, and yet never

leave a tiace that the orange had been tampered with. He was

also fond of a few mealworms, but feed sparingly and you have

in a Poe Bird one of the finest gems that an aviculturist need

wish for, although it is a long while since I saw one on offer.

It has never been my luck to possess a hen.



FOREIGN BIRDS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE SHOW,


By D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S.


The Annual Show of the London and Provincial Orni¬

thological Society was held at the Crystal Palace from the 2nd to

the 6th of February, dates which coincided, as it happened,

with some of the coldest weather that we have experienced in

the South of England for some years, and as I journeyed down

to Sydenham on the first day of the Show, in an unwarmed

railway carriage, I felt very thankful that I was not the owner

of any birds at the show in such weather.


The authorities did their utmost to provide and maintain

a suitable temperature for the more delicate birds, but I noticed

that the exhibitors who had sent such delicate subjects as Sun-

birds were careful to place their cages against the hot pipes. It

is certainly the worst time of the year for a show of foreign birds,

but since these have to join forces with Canaries and British



