Correspondence



311



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


I am sorry the letters on bird importation have become personal.


Mr. Webb’s letter seemed such a serious indictment of all dealers, particularly

those who help the Magazine by their advertisements, that I felt obliged to

protest.


I believe the late Mr. Chapman was a member of the Society. His shop

was beautifully kept and the men kind in every way with the birds. I saw

some unpacked in very good condition.


Messrs, de Von too have sent me some lovely birds.


Your correspondent gave me the impression that all dealers were disgusting

in their methods, and that no decent person should buy birds from them—

even their name on the Magazine was a pollution ! My small experience

has been exactly the opposite.


I never part with my birds consequently my business with bird dealers

has been on a small scale.


The above facts alone made me write to your paper as I did.


If I happen to see a seedy bird in a shop I always try to buy it and have

occasionally had Fire Finches and the more delicate Waxbills sit with closed

eyes for two days but a week’s careful nursing cured them, and I have had

them for nearly three years in gorgeous plumage.


In case any one cares to try it my method is this : Get a moderately sized

cage with warmed sand and green turf on the bottom, line half-way up inside

with fine hay and wrap the whole outside excepting the front with flannel.

Keep a temperature of about 80°. They seem readily to take drops of milk

or cream given by a paint brush held close to the beak. I let a drop fall on

the beak and after that find the birds suck the brush eagerly. I sprinkle

Indian millet and white millet on the bottom of the cage, and as soon as

possible persuade them to take a mealworm. One has to watch them night

and day. I prefer them in the house in front of a hot bright fire—it seems

to revive them better than the pipe heat of the bird house. It means a

continuous fire and constant watching night and day—but these trifles don’t

count where birds come in. It is such a joy to see their daily improvement.


If this experience is of any use to the sender of the SOS for Waxbills

I shall be very glad.


Muriel Maxwell Jackson.



Avicultural societies and Press were in the past far too blind to the

inhuman cruelty infiicked by a certain class of bird dealer in the past. Our

indifference towards this matter was the direct cause of the Buckmaster Bill

being passed for we had little defence against the charges made. The condition

of many of our British bird shops was simply disgusting and dangerous to

health, and the fearful outbreak of psittacosis caused little surprise among

the more thoughtful aviculturists. The manner in which newly caught wild

birds were caged and handled in our shops and market places deserved corporal

punishment. To see dying Greypates sitting huddled up by the dozen was

a sight which produced the same feeling in the pit of the stomach as does a



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