110



Correspondence



that birds require baths, green food, and grit as well as seed and water ; that

cleanliness is essential; that perches need washing as regularly as cage

floors, and that a thick spar of wood fixed at both ends is very tiring to

a bird’s legs and feet.


Tavistock.


I imagine that this Bill has little chance of becoming law in its present

form, and undoubtedly it requires to be watched and amended. But I think

aviculturists will have to reconcile themselves to the passing, sooner or later,

of legislation of some such character, for there is an increasing number of

people to whom the caging of wild birds is abhorent.


Of course, the subject bristles with difficulties. To start with, a definite

principle to work on is most desirable, and the only sound one is, I think,


“ Never to seek one’s pleasure or one’s gain

In sorrow of the meanest thing that breathes.”


But when one comes to apply this principle troubles begin, for one has to

consider in each case whether the benefit to man is sufficient to compensate

for the injury inflicted on the lower creature, and this is often a difficult

problem.


It is a fact that British birds, with the exception of the Redpoll and Siskin,

seem to resent captivity more than most foreign species. Newly caged Gold¬

finches and Linnets certainly suffer, and I believe that few of your readers

would defend the caging of Skylarks. On the other hand, there can generally

be no cruelty in keeping any bird hand-reared from the nest, though Swallows

and other species obviously unsuited for captivity might well be prohibited

even if hand-reared.


I do not think that we need trouble ourselves greatly to defend the right

of the working man to keep a British songster in a small cage. So long as he

has Canaries, Budgerigars, and Bengalese, not to mention other foreign

species easily bred in cages or small aviaries, I do not see that he will be hardly

used by a ban on the caging of wild-caught Linnets and Goldfinches. Bull¬

finches are much sooner reconciled to captivity ; and this species is such an

enemy to the fruit-grower that almost anything which will reduce its numbers

is defensible.


Horatio R. Fillmer.


The Bill, as drafted, is altogether too drastic, but few would object to

certain amendments to the present law as regards the capture and caging of

British birds. Personally, I would like to see the use of large clap-nets

forbidden, for with these the professional bird-catcher captures Finches

and such like by the hundred and sells them at a ridiculously low price to

persons who have no idea as to how to look after them properly. There are

certain birds that should never be kept in captivity under any circumstances,

such as Swallows, Swifts, Martins, Kingfishers, and I personally would add

Skylarks and Dippers. Many or most of the other insectivorous birds thrive

well in captivity if taken in hand by experienced persons, and few who are

not experienced ever attempt to keep them. One has heard lately a great deal

about the alleged blinding of birds to make them sing, but I personally

have never come across a case of this abominable cruelty, and until recently

I should have said that it was certainly never practised in this country;

but now I am beginning to wonder whether, in some of the low haunts of our



