Leeds 
Bird Show. 
( 33 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Leeds Bird Show, 
Children’s Visit. 
The First e^nd Second Prize Essays. 
Recording the Visitors Impressions, 
[Last year the Committee of the Leeds 
Cage Bird Society, with a view to en 
courage the love of birds amongst the 
young citizens of Leeds, offered two 
prizes—one for girls and one for boys— 
for the best essays containing a descrip¬ 
tion of the visit of the children to the 
Show. About fifty competitors sent in 
papers, which were adjudicated upon by 
Mr. F. W. Somers, the president of the 
Society, and the winners were adjudged 
to be Annie E. Thomson and Frank 
Tingle. By the courtesy of the Commit¬ 
tee of the Leeds Cage Bird Society we 
are afforded the pleasure and privilege 
of publishing the prize-winning essays. 
Encouraged by the success of the scheme 
our Leeds friends intend repeating their 
experiment in connection with their 
Show, which is announced to be held on 
November 15th and 16th next. Their 
efforts to encourage a love of bird life 
amongst the children of their city are 
worthy of the greatest commendation 
and support. —Ed., B.W.] 
A Visit to a Bird Show. 
By Annie E. Thomson. 
Last Friday afternoon our headmaster, 
Mr. Hornby, took me and about twenty 
more scholars to a Cage Bird Show. 
We had nothing to pay, because Mr. 
Hornby got an invitation from the secre¬ 
tary of the Cage Bird Society of Leeds. 
He took the invitation very gladly, and 
was pleased to go. He thought the 
secretary was a very kind, generous, and 
thoughtful man. The Show was held in 
the Salem Sunday School, in Hunslet 
New Road. The people which went in 
to see the birds had to pay sixpence for 
admission, and if they wished they could 
buy a book which told them all about 
the birds, and where they came from. 
The lecturer was called Mr. Bell, who 
came from Barnsley. He was a good 
judge for birds; he could tell when a 
bird was fit for a prize. The first bird 
he spoke about was called a Norwich 
Canary; it had some beautiful marks. 
One on the head, tail, and another which 
they called the saddle mark. The next 
was the Yorkshire Canary; it is a beauti¬ 
ful coloured bird. Then Mr. Bell told 
us how to judge a bird. He said that 
if a bird had waxtight feathers it would 
do for a prize bird. When Mr. Bell had 
finished his address we had a walk round 
the room, and we saw many different 
kinds of birds, such as Norwich Canary, 
Yorkshire Canary, Goldfinch, Swallow, 
Greenfinch, Cockatoo, Parrot, Nightin¬ 
gale, Chaffinches, Linnets, Nuthatch, 
Thrush, and the Bunting. I have 
already told you about the Norwich 
Canary and the Yorkshire Canary, so I 
will now tell you about the others. The 
Goldfinch is a beautiful coloured bird. 
It has a red mark round its eyes, and a 
black mark round its head and parts of 
its wings, and another part of its lovely 
body was yellow. The Swallow had a 
yellow and brown breast. The Green¬ 
finch was green on the back, and had a 
red beak. There was a Cockatoo which 
was white all over except its neck, which 
was pink. There was also a Parrot 
which was worth ^250. The reason it 
was worth so much was this—because it 
had such gaudy colours, and it could 
talk. I also saw a Nightingale. It looks 
a very quiet little bird, but it can sing 
beautiful. I did not hear it sing when I 
was there; I must have frightened it, or 
something. There was the Chaffinch, 
which has a long, black tail. The next 
I came to was the Linnet, which was a 
greyish colour. I then saw the Wood¬ 
pecker, or Nuthatch, which is a greyish- 
brown colour. When it wants any -food 
