SELBORNIANA. 
215 
Bucus the Elder,” indicate the kind of “humour” which the articles under these 
headings and other contributions affect. There are readable papers in the number, 
but in these days a shilling is a large sum to give for thirty-si.x pages of any but 
the best literature, and The Nature Lover does not provide this. 
Dr. A. H. Japp’s Hours in ]\Ly Garden (Hogg, 6s.) is one of those chatty books 
which, although containing nothing new, give us some hours’ pleasant reading and 
are always sure of a public. Birds and flowers, woods, ponds, streams and their 
inhabitants, afford ample topics for Dr. Japp’s discourse, and he shows an apprecia- 
tive knowledge of many good books. But the volume is greatly marred — we 
had almost .said spoiled — by the introduction of a miscellaneous selection of illus- 
trations, which have apparently done duty before in various publications, and are 
here inharmoniously brought together. The volume would be greatly improved 
by their absence. 
Mr. John Priestman has brought together — not, we think, for the first time — 
the various references to birds in the Bible, and publishes them in a little volume 
entitled God's Birds (Burns and Oates, 2s. 6d.). The author’s comments are often 
interesting, sometimes fanciful, and there are curious terms of e.'cpression here and 
there, as when certain lines are said “ to palpitate with the poetry of piety.” If, 
as we think, the pages are reprinted without alteration from a magazine, some 
indication of this should have been given. 
SELBORNIANA. 
British Wild Birds at Shows. — The exhibition of British wild birds 
at horticultural and other shows should be condemned and discouraged in every 
possible way. I feel this very strongly, and it is my rule to refuse all subscrip- 
tions to any local exhibition unless cage birds, other than canaries, are excluded 
from the list. I hold it cruelty to keep any wild bird whatsoever confined within 
the narrow limits of a cage, thus denying them the use of the wings with which 
Nature has provided them. It is certain that tolerance of the trade of bird- 
catching hastens the doom of extermination, which it is to be feared awaits all 
our loveliest species of English birds. Last month, at a I-'anciers’ Association 
show in a town near London, prizes were awarded for three special exhibits — a 
kingfisher, a nightingale, and a spotted woodpecker. The president of the 
Association was good enough to listen to my appeal, which I farther strengthened 
by forwarding to him a copy of the October number of Nature Notes, and 
calling his attention to Mr. F. W. Ashley’s eloquent and touching protest. This 
gentleman says in his reply, “ I have read the article you point out, and having 
been often among the bird shops in London, I can endorse every word of it. 
I have written to the secretary of the show, and have urged him to do away 
with the class of British Birds.” It would prove a serious check upon a wide- 
spread form of cruelty, if all your readers would do their utmost, when oppor- 
tunities offer, to discourage and prevent the trapping of wild birds for the 
purpose either of exhibition or of life-imprisonment. 
Eleanor Vere C. Boyle. 
Elrick House, Aberdeensliire. 
Canaries and Cages (p. 173).— Having kept and bred these birds for 
several years, I should like to say a few words in reply to Miss E. Carrington’s 
article. In the first place I do not understand her objection to seeing them 
caged. Canaries could not possibly live wild in the British climate. Has Miss 
Carrington ever visited any of the large canary shows in England, where some 
of the most beautiful specimens are to be seen ? Birds perfect in form and 
colour, artificially bred for generations, perfectly happy in their cages, and an 
endless source of pleasure to their owners ; but birds that would assuredly die 
in a few days out of doors. Then again, with regard to the hapless specimen 
alluded to : deformed feet are constantly met with in young canaries when they 
leave the nest (by no means the result of cruelty or neglect from their owners. 
