Leeds 
Bird Show. 
( 34 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
it pecks with its beak at the wood, and 
gets the little grubs out for food. I also 
saw the Thrush, which reminds you of 
spring when the trees are just beginning 
to bud. 
That’s the wise Thrush ; he sings his song 
twice over, 
Lest you should think he never could recapture 
The first fine careless rapture. 
The last that I saw was the Bunting. 
In summer the male and female separate 
until another season. I was very pleased 
with my visit to the Bird Show, and I 
think I should have missed a great treat 
if I had stayed at school. I cannot re¬ 
member anything else about my visit, so 
I remain, hoping for the best, 
Yours truly, 
A. Thomson. 
Cage Bird Exhibition. 
By Frank Tingle. 
On Friday, November 19th, about 
twenty scholars from our school were 
kindly allowed to visit an exhibition 
given by the Leeds Cage Bird Society. 
The first thing that struck one on enter¬ 
ing was the song of the different birds 
mingling together. We walked up the 
Lecture Hall of Salem Chapel, the ex¬ 
hibition being held there, and crowded 
round the little platform at the end, on 
which a gentleman was stood. This 
turned out to be Mr. Bell, a Barnsley 
gentleman, who proceeded to give us a 
short lecture on the principal Canaries 
in the exhibition, and how to tell them. 
The Canaries were Norwich, Yorkshire, 
and Border Fancies. The Norwich 
Canary is a thick-set, robust, and bull¬ 
necked Canary; whilst Yorkshires are 
slight, ladylike birds, lighter in colour 
than the Norwich, which is of an orange 
tint. The Border Fancies are like the 
Yorkshires. The Crested Norwich has 
a tuft of feathers on its head, which 
radiate from the centre and fall evenly 
all round. We then went down the first 
row of birds with Mr. Bell. The first 
two cages contained a Swallow and a 
Wagtail respectively. A Swallow is a 
restless bird, being ever on the wing, 
with its mouth wide open, catching the 
insects which inhabit the air. The next 
bird was a Nuthatch, which, by the aid 
of its forked tongue and hard beak, is 
enabled to drill a hole in a nut and ex¬ 
tract the kernel. Passing on, we came 
to a bird called a Wryneck, which was 
ill. This bird keeps a very dirty nest. 
The next cage contained a Blackbird, 
which was a sharp, clear black, and had 
a red beak. Then came some Parson 
Finches, these having a black patch on 
their breasts. There was also a Rufus 
Finch, which was of a dull red colour, 
and a Rufus-Tailed Finch, which had a 
tail at least nine inches long. There 
were also Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Par¬ 
rots, and Parrakeets. 
Frank Tingle. 
Ebony-Coloured Thieves. 
Any observant country rambler who 
can appreciate a novel, interesting, and 
innocent entertainment might pause in 
his walk and watch a colony of Rooks 
while busy building their nests. One of 
the feathered pair nearly always remains 
at home, while the other goes out fora 
ging for sticks. If the absent one is 
away for a long time the one in the nest 
becomes impatient, and many ugly, dis¬ 
cordant calls the wanderer receives on 
his return. If both birds should be so 
silly as to leave the nest for a short time, 
the Rooks which remain, engaged in 
building the surrounding nests, will sig¬ 
nificantly look at each other; then they 
will say a few seemingly wise things, and 
at first innocently hop towards the de¬ 
serted nest. Then one and another of 
them yield to temptation, and each will 
quietly steal a few sticks, and if the 
rightful owners do not soon return the 
nest will be entirely “commandeered/' 
I have seen, says a writer, one bird sit¬ 
ting on the edge of a nest pulling sticks 
from another nest within reach ; and thus 
there is no doubt that some of the more 
knowing old Rooks are able to construct 
their homes with very little labour. I 
was once hiding underneath a tree in 
which there was a number of Rooks 7 
nests, and I heard a rustling at my feet. 
A squirrel soon appeared and ran up the 
tree, entered one of the nests, and a few 
minutes later descended with a baby 
Rook in its mouth ! 
