102



END OF AN ERA


With the passing of our President Mrs Ruth Sawyer (nee Ezra), there is

no longer a member of the Ezra family in the society. Its long association

with the Avicultural Society started with Ruth’s uncle Sir David Ezra, who

joined the society in June 1912, followed a few months later by her father

Alfred Ezra. They were sons of Elias David Ezra, a prominent businessman

in Calcutta, India, where Sir David Ezra was several times Mayor of

Calcutta.


Although Ruth’s father had a London house he always preferred the

country so, in 1919, acquired the 300 acre (approx. 120 hectare) estate of

Fox warren Park, Cobham, Surrey, in which he was able to indulge his passion

of keeping birds and mammals under near-natural conditions. The rarest

of all his birds were the Pink-headed Ducks Rhodonessa caryophyllacea

of which, in 1932, he had several males, but only one female. They were

obtained through his brother in Calcutta. He never succeeded in breeding

the Pink-headed Duck, a species which is extinct now, but was first in

the UK to breed a long list of other species including the Superb Starling

Lamprotornis superbus (1924), White-crowned Starling Spreo albicapillus

(1929), Bali Starling Leucospar rothschildi (1931) and Bristle-crowned

Starling Onycognathus salvadorii (1931), Riippell’s Long-tailed Starling L.

purpuropterus (1933), Western Bluebird Sialis mexicana (1937), Mountain

Bluebird S. curnicoides (1938) and White-crowned Robin Chat Cossypha

albicapilla (1939).


Fred Bamicoat wrote recently about the annual garden party at Foxwarren

Park, the first account of which was written by David Seth-Smith. On that

occasion, May 16th 1925, some 40 members accepted the invitation of Mr

and Mrs Ezra, who kindly provided a charabanc (a motor coach) for the party

which departed from Hyde Park Comer. The generous hospitality of Mr and

Mrs Ezra was well known throughout the world and the annual garden party

was the highlight of the year for members of the Avicultural Society.


Jean Delacour met Alfred Ezra for the first time, through his old friend

Hubert Astley, whom Ruth’s father succeeded as President of the Avicultural

Society. Alfred Ezra was, wrote Jean Delacour, a pioneer in keeping nectar¬

feeding birds and had invented the formula - a mixture of honey, Nestles

condensed milk and Mellin’s food - that was used for many years to feed

sunbirds and hummingbirds. Between the two world wars, Jean Delacour

often spent a week or two each month in England with Ruth’s father. His

houses in London and at Foxwarren Park were, wrote Jean Delacour, almost

as much home for him as was Cleres, his own home in France, where Ruth’s

father often stayed. They used to visit bird collections and went to bird

shows and attended meetings of zoological and ornithological clubs and



