on a Visit to the Little Zoo, Bath. 201


In quite a small room there were two or three thousand

Grassfinches, as well as a great many Parrakeets and Kangaroos,

and yet the atmosphere was perfectly clean and sweet. Scarcely

a bird that did not look healthy, not a seed or waterpan which

was not clean also. And in addition to this, one met with that

which those who are accustomed to it cannot well do without,

extreme courtesy with painstaken kindness and a spirit of hos-

pitality. Would that all English dealers possessed the same

virtues ! It just made all the difference to my visit. And Mr.

Payne is the same in correspondence. Politely - worded and

plainly-written letters by return of post, instead of terse and even

rude post-cards, which more than one so-called "Naturalist" in

England has despatched to me. There are some of these dealers

who before they begin to study the trade of bird-dealing, had

better be sent back to school to learn proper manners, and

humanity with regard to the birds and animals which have the

awful misfortune of being imprisoned in the filthy places they

have ready for them. I am not in the least astonished at Mr.

Porter's account in the April Magazine of the Ring-necked

Parrakeets. At any rate Messrs. Payne and Wallace treat their

customers courteously and honestly, and their creatures kindly

and humanel}'.


It was a delight to see amongst other birds, such rarities

as a pair of Red-capped (Pileated) Parrakeets, two pairs of Rock

Parrakeets (Neophema petrophila) and a large importation of the

beautiful Earl of Derby or Stanley Parrakeet (Platycercus icterotis)

as well as a quantity of " Twenty-Eight " Parrakeets, and a pair

of the rare Painted Finches (Emblema picta), the little male bird

resplendent with fiery-red patches on face, breast and tail-coverts.

There were also two pairs of the rarely imported Grey Crow-

Shrike : fine grey birds with yellow eyes. They were in a small

box-cage, yet their feet were as clean as if they had been just

caught, and they looked full of vigour and good health.


The numerous Bicheno's Finches — Gouldian, Iyong-tailed,

Yellow-rumped, etc. might have just been caged from the best

of outdoor aviaries, so spry and sprack did they look.


Mr. Payne showed me the skin of the rare White-quilled—

Rock Dove from Australia, a skin which had once held a living



