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chiffchaff and the willow warbler, says that “ so long as their con¬ 
finement leads to the death of 9 out of 10 within a few weeks, and 
of 99 out of 100 within a few months, it appears mere cruelty to 
cage them.” The same writer, while advocating the keeping of 
birds in aviaries, says, “ I think the feeling is growing that we 
ought, as much as possible ... to discourage the use of cages.” 
A few species are able to withstand captivity and grow to some 
extent habituated to the new surroundings and become tranquil 
under them, but the life which becomes tranquil merely by the 
deadening of the natural faculties cannot be regarded as a happy 
one, and this is the best the birdcager has to offer his victims. 
We have heard of cases in which a bird, when put into a larger 
cage after some years spent in one of the smallest, was unable even 
to hop on to the higher perch, and this is emblematic of the 
dwarfing of the whole nature. 
That the life is an unhealthy one at best is shown by the long 
list of diseases, including consumption, asthma, gout, paralysis, 
cramp, apoplexy, tumours, sore feet, etc., etc., which caged birds 
develop. As one writer says, “ How can a creature with four limbs 
keep in health while two, the most important to be exercised, cannot 
be used ? ” or while, we might add, he is kept to one unchanging 
diet, when in nature he has an everchanging variety from which his 
instinct tells him how to pick that which his needs demand at the 
moment or season, whether as food or medicine. As Mr. W. H. 
Hudson says, # “ Any one of us, even a philosopher, would think it 
hard to be restricted to dry bread only, yet such a punishment 
would be small compared with that which we, in our ignorance or 
want of consideration, inflict on our caged animals—our pets on 
compulsion. Small, because an almost infinite variety of flavours 
drawn from the whole vegetable kingdom—a hundred flavours for 
every one in the dietary which satisfies our heavy mammalian 
natures—is a condition of the little wild bird’s existence, and 
essential to its well-being and perfect happiness.” 
A case giving some details as to the capture of birds for sale 
* “Birds in a Village,” by W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S. 
