The War.



337



where again the room door was open and all the windows. Out he

flew over to the orchard, but he only stayed out an hour or two and

came back to his cage. Did he remember the hemp-seeds ? I am

now getting him a mate, as his marked attentions to the hen of the

other bullies have excited the wrath and jealousy of the cock so that

he bullies his wife, and it will be interesting to see if he transfers his

admiration or prefers single blessedness.


He has a curious little habit, which seems to proceed from a

nervous sort of shyness, of turning his back on one and pretending

to be very much occupied with his own affairs if he thinks he is

wanted to come, say for a hemp-seed or to go to bed, and then

suddenly darting round and taking the hemp, or whisking into his

cage when he thinks you no longer care. The other day he thought

himself aggrieved because he had no more seed left at the end of the

day, and flew into a rage with me, swearing and pecking at my

fingers when I held them up to his cage.



THE WAR.


We do not know how many of our members have, or may be

going, to the front.


Sir Roland Corbet has gone with his regiment, the Coldstream

Guards, and no doubt there may be others whom the Society will

especially think of in this time of trial and suspense. It is calami¬

tous and infamous that not only peace-loving nations should be

forced into a stupendous war, but also that thousands of Germans

who must hate and loathe it should have to be involved, and become

our enemies. The Germans are great bird-lovers ; everywhere in

Germany there are signs of this in the numerous nesting-boxes for

the benefit of the wild birds. Long ago, when aviculture was in its

infancy in England, in Germany many foreign birds had been bred

in captivity, and insectivorous foods had been studied. The vileness

of the plots of the Prussian War Party, with the inflated vanity of

the Kaiser to back it up, is completely outside our experiences of

and dealings with German bird lovers.


The late Herr Carl Hagenbeck was a fine type of a Christian



