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Dr. A. G. Butler,



Personally I have never heard of it being kept in captivity in

England, though this has been done successfully in the South of

Spain, whence it can be obtained. Certainly the public took great

interest in the young Avocet at the Zoo a few years ago. Would

Stilts be more difficult to keep than Avocets, and, if so, why ?


The above are only a few instances of birds that seem to me

to be neglected by aviculturists, but if I am wrong no one will be

more delighted than myself. If experts as to all or any of these

birds exist, I sincerely hope they will not keep to themselves the

results of their experience, for


“ What delights can equal those

That stir the spirit’s inner deeps,


When one that loves but knows not reaps

A truth from one that loves and knows ? ”



THIRTY-TWO YEARS OF AVICULTURE.


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


(Continued from page 199.)


It is probably supposed, because my first avicultural book

was “Foreign I inches in Captivity,” that Finches are my favourite

birds ; but this is far from being the case. They are easy to provide

for ; but, with a few exceptions, are by no means easy to breed

unless one possesses large and suitable outdoor aviaries : indoors

they are more subject to egg-binding than most birds. They

certainly do not possess the intelligence or the endearing confidence

of most soft-billed birds ; still they are pretty, some of them beau¬

tiful in plumage, and the small size of many of them renders them

charming. I have at various times kept the following :—


A pair of the Madeiran Chaffinch which I kept in a flight-

cage : quiet tame birds, which I might perhaps have bred in an

aviary, but which made no attempt to do so in a cage. The cock

bird sang well, the performance being more varied and longer, but

with a strong resemblance to that of the European bird. Of the

latter I have kept many examples, mostly caught in the garden in

the winter months. Bird-catchers assert that there are two forms



