A Champion 
Exhibitor. 
(37) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
A Champion Exhibitor. 
Mr. Charles T. Maxwell Interviewed. 
By JOHN FROSTICK. 
The name of Maxwell is a household word 
amongst the cage-bird exhibitors of the United 
Kingdom, and well it may be, for he is un¬ 
doubtedly one of the “ champions ” of the pre¬ 
sent time. To become a champion in any 
sphere of life requires grit, determination, 
perseverance, judgment and tact, and, in 
the case of a bird-lover, cash. Happily Mr. 
Chas. T. Maxwell is richly endowed with all 
these good gifts, and the result is—success. 
But there is one more faculty to name, and 
that a somewhat rare one among successful 
men, the faculty of making friends. Most emi¬ 
nent people generally count their enemies in 
proportion to their height on the ladder of 
fame, but I believe that our friend has the 
happy distinction of being without an enemy 
in the world. 
During the hundreds of visits I have paid to 
Mr. Maxwell’s aviaries I have often thought 
what a pity it was so few could enjoy with 
their own eyes the pleasures of such a visit, 
although by his kind invitation many have 
done so. Therefore, in this imperfect "form, I 
am going to try and convey some idea of the 
man they know by repute, and of the incompara¬ 
ble collection of British and Hybrid birds (num¬ 
bering some 80 ) he has gathered together at 
his home in Acre Lane, Brixton. Without the 
aid of my friend, Mr. Palmer, of Tooting, who, 
as his pictures show, is an expert amateur 
photographer, I am afraid my endeavours would 
be of poor service, but with his help we will do 
our best 
A YOUTHFUL FANCIER. 
Mr. Maxwell, like the majority of fanciers, 
was, as it were, born with the love of keeping 
animals of all kinds, and, like many others of 
similar tendencies, did not always devote his 
time to cage birds, for when only five years of 
age he had a donkey presented to him, which 
would have satisfied most children. But his 
strong fancier instincts impelled him to start 
breeding and training these useful animals on 
Mr. Maxwell, of Brixton, by his Aviary 
