THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fourth Series. —Vol. XI.—No. 1 .—-All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1933.



THE EARLY DAYS OF THE AVICULTURAL


SOCIETY


By An Original Member


Origins are always interesting, and the fact that the Avicultural

Society will in 1933 enter upon its fortieth year, points to the desirability

of putting upon record its early beginnings, while any one of the

dwindling band of Original Members survives to do it.


The Society is now a large and important one, but it began in

a small way. It was founded in 1894 by two young men (C. S.

Simpson and H. R. Fillmer) who were intimate personal friends and

who had recently entered upon their professional careers in medicine

and law respectively. They had been bird enthusiasts from child¬

hood, and they, especially Simpson, had had a fair amount of experience

in the care of a number of foreign species, but it is doubtful whether

they would have succeeded in making the Society a success without

the co-operation of two older and much more experienced bird-keepers,

Mr. Reginald Phillipps and Dr. A. G. Butler, both of whom were not

only experts on the subject, but had the gift of writing interestingly

about it.


For some years there had been in existence a small Society called

the “ United Kingdom Foreign Cage Bird Society ”, which issued

a little monthly publication the contents of which were contributed

by the members. This was undoubtedly the prototype of the


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