30



Correspondence



May I make another, and, as far as I know, a new proposal ? It

is this. The very subject of birds is, in my most humble opinion,

in grave danger of being over-written. Such reams of print have

appeared during the last few years, and are still appearing, about birds

that there is really very little that is new to be written, and many

people are beginning to feel somewhat nauseated by this constant

serving-up to these feasts of avicultural nourishment. This more

particularly applies to our hobby of the keeping of birds in

confinement. The same round of experiences, minor successes and

disappointments, and small events are recorded, slightly disguised,

time after time.


What I venture, with trepidation, to suggest is this. Why not

enlarge our scope, our outlook, and our interests 1 Why, in fact, should

we confine ourselves to birds ? Why not, still keeping birds as our

major interest, lend our pages to descriptions of our members’ other

pets, those with fur instead of feathers 1 Many of us do not keep only

birds, but have as well all sorts of small mammals.


If a member keeps Golden Agoutis, as I used to, at large in his

garden, or if he has a Coatimundi, an Armadillo, or any other out-of-

the-way pet, let him write and tell of it in the pages of the Magazine.


I am prepared to wager that the result will be a larger Magazine,

more interesting, and more original articles each month, and, as a result,

an increase in membership. I offer this as a suggestion, hoping that if

it does nothing else it will bring forth a better scheme from some other

member, which will lead to the rejuvenation of the Avicultural

Magazine. We could then take as our club motto that noble line of

English verse (the name of the poet at this moment escapes my

memory) : “ Happy homes and hairy faces.”


Philip Gosse.


[We hope our members will freely express their views on this

subject. — Eds.]



