F. E. Blaauto — About Birds in North America



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sometimes surpass the Hill Mynah. The price of the Mynah is often

over £10, if it mimics the Japanese language.


Of the Crow tribe, we have a very small number as cage-birds.

The commonest of these is the Japanese Jay, and it is very hardy, and

sometimes we find an excellent mocker amongst them. The Lidith

Jay was formerly brought from the Loo-Choo (Amami Oshima) in

numbers, but now it has become very scarce. It mimics better than the

Japanese Jay, but it is quite similar to it in its hardiness. The Piet

is also sometimes imported in small numbers.


Of the Woodpeckers, the commonest Japanese species are the

Japanese Pied Woodpecker, the Japanese Green Woodpecker, the

Japanese Pigmy Woodpecker, and the Wryneck, but these are rarely

kept in cages. They are generally very hardy.


The little Cocker and the common Cuckoos are kept by some of the

most successful aviculturists, especially those of western Japan.


♦ The small Waders, that is to say the Rails, the Snipe, and the

Plovers are often fed with paste food by the Japanese.



ABOUT BIRDS IN NORTH AMERICA


By F. E. Blaauw


During the summer of 1921 I took a trip round the United States of

North America, returning through Southern Canada. The object of my

trip was to visit the forests of North America, which the lumbermen

are cutting down in a most alarming way, but I have not forgotten the

birds for all that, and it may interest the readers of the Avicultural

Magazine to hear which kinds of birds I met travelling over that

enormous extent of country.


I took ship in Rotterham on the 20th May, I believe, arriving in

New York ten days later. New York is not a birdy place, and even the

European Sparrows are scarce birds there, chiefly, I suppose, on account

of the horse traffic having given way to the automobiles. It was terribly

hot in New York on my arrival there, and hoping to get some fresh air

I went to Central Park a couple of clays after my arrival. I did not find

fresh air in Central Park, just the reverse, as the numberless automobiles

made it even more dusty than the streets, and a great part of the soil



