The Birds of India. 
45 
Since my visit, of which tlie record is now closed, another aviary on 
similar lines, constructed of double boardinjj, with felt between, and the same 
arrangement of glazed shutters has been constructed as a Tauager aviary, 
but this must form another story, as I hope to see it at no distant date. 
In conclusion, for the benefit of our members, I would ask Mrs. 
Anningsou to kindly give some details of her melhoils of feeding and 
treatment, and also to recall some nesting experiences for the general good. 
BlrC)5 of 3nMa. 
By DouGi.AS Dkwar, I.C.S. 
\_A Lecture delivei ed before the Indian Section of the Royal Society of Arts, 
and reproduced by kind permission of the Author and R.S.A.^ 
From the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 
{Continued from paoe 289, Vol. VII.) 
Thk Charm of Birds. 
Mr. W. H. Hudson quotes vSir Edward Grey as saying that the love 
and appreciation and slud v of birds is something fresher and brighter than 
the second-hand interests and conventional amusements in which so many 
ill these days try to live; that the pleasure of seeing and listening to them 
is purer and more lasting than any pleasures of excitement, and, in the 
long run, "happier than personal success." 
Only those who have come under the sway of the charm of birds can 
appreciate to what an extent joie de vivre is enhanced by an acquaint- 
ance with them. Interest in the feathered hosts, when once aroused in 
a man, will never flag or wane. Rather will it grow in intensity with 
advancing years, so that many a man as 
"Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day," 
has been able to say, with the late Mr. K. Bosworth Smith, " Birds have 
been to me the solace, the recreation, the passion of a life time." It is not 
easy to describe in words the nature of the enduring happiness which the 
love of birds gives. This must, of necessity, vary with temperament. Says 
Gilbert White: 
"To yonder bench, leaf-shelter'd, let us stray. 
Till blended objects fail tlie swininiing sight, 
And all the fading landscape sinks ill night ; 
To hear the drowsy dor come brushing by 
With buzzing wing, or the shrill cricket cry; 
To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; 
To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 
While o'er the cliff th' awakened churn -owl hung 
Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; 
While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings. 
Unseen, 'the soft enaiiiour'd woodlark sings; 
These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ. 
Inspire a soothing, melancholy joy : 
As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 
Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein." 
