[ 7 ] 
properly and without cruelty is rightly liable to punishment, and 
there is no reasonable ground why the law should not apply to 
captive birds as well. The proverbial “ gilded cage ” which is still 
a prison, shows that in his heart man has realized, though he is 
loth to confess it, the true nature of his tyranny. 
The plea that the keeping of birds is useful as a means of 
study sounds more like an excuse than a reason. To place a 
creature under wholly unnatural conditions is not the way to study 
its natural history; and happily recent writers have taken to 
advocating the open-air observation with field-glass and camera, 
from which much more may be learnt than from parlour 
observations. 
The case of canaries and other birds bred in captivity is some¬ 
what different from that of wild birds; but those who indulge in 
it, and those who really try to treat their prisoners kindly and to 
make up to them for their loss of freedom, would do well to 
remember that, while possibly innocent of harm themselves, they 
are setting an example which will be followed by many others, who 
will not treat their prisoners so kindly, and that they are sup¬ 
porting and keeping alive a detestable trade, which cannot pos¬ 
sibly, from its nature, be carried on without great cruelty and the 
wholesale slaughter of thousands of the most charming, innocent, 
and useful creatures, and the threatened extermination of some of 
the most beautiful species. 
Ernest Bell. 
Copies of this Leaflet, 4d. per dozen, 2s. 6d. per 100, may be obtained from 
tlie Society’s Publishing Department, Knowledge Office, 326, High Holborn, 
W.C , or from the Hon. Sec., Mrs. F. E. Lemon, 3, Hanover Square, London, W. 
Wither by & Co., Printers, 326, High Holborn, W.C. 
