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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Foreign Birds for Cage and Aviary. By Arthur G. Butler, 

 Ph.D., &c. "The Feathered World" Publishing Office. 

 Two vols. 



Dr. Butler has the reputation of being an ardent and 

 successful aviculturist — in fact, as is well known to his friends, 

 he may be said for years past to have almost lived in his 

 aviaries. His experience has therefore been a personal acquisi- 

 tion, and as he is also acquainted with ornithological literature, 

 these volumes contain many gleanings from foreign as well as 

 British authorities. In our younger days a well-thumbed guide 

 was Bechstein's ' Cage and Chamber-Birds,' which appeared as 

 one of the volumes in " Bohn's Illustrated Library." In more 

 recent times we have had ' Die Fremdlandischen Stubenvogel,' 

 by Dr. Buss, while the foundation of the Avicultural Society, 

 with the issue of its monthly magazine, has raised aviculture to 

 a distinct branch of ornithology. There was still more than 

 room for an adequate work on the subject, and little doubt can 

 be felt that Dr. Butler has supplied that demand. 



It is probable that among humbler and less wealthy folk the 

 keeping of birds in captivity as treasured pets has diminished. 

 The birdcatcher is now much less in evidence ; in our schoolboy 

 days he constituted a distinct item in most rural landscapes, and 

 our petty cash at that period was largely devoted to the purchase 

 of such rarities as the " Kiss-me-dear Chaffinch," the Song- 

 Thrush with the true wild note, the "Aberdevine," and other 

 treasures originally derived from the store-cages of these gentry. 

 On the other hand, the aviaries of the more financially blessed 

 have now supplanted the cages, often dungeons, of the poor, and 

 this perhaps should be considered no small gain. At that time 

 also foreign birds were to be more frequently seen, and too often 

 in contemptible cages, for sailors then brought home pets for their 

 friends, which also for themselves beguiled the long voyage and 



