[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sirt,—While you were penning
the article "For Beast and Bird," for which thousands of readers will thank you, a writer in one of your contemporaries was apparently meditating in grave indecision as to whether in fact captivity is not a blessing to wild animals and especially birds. "The animals in a decent Zoo are relieved of the struggle for existence and are given a certain security in exchange for liberty with all its hazards." This leads up to the confession that life in the Stone Age could not be more miserable than life to-day—" Do we not endure Governments and irksome and often idiotic laws ? Do we not submit to the slavery of the clock, to the daily routine of office, shop, factory or mine ? "—and so it becomes evident that what this writer longs for is not liberty but licence, and his conclusion that " the caged animal has not the concept of liberty which is the torture of man " is not surprising. The animal (beast or bird) obeys the laws of its own nature by which it develops ; captivity thwarts its obedi- ence and stunts its evolution. The writer confines his obser- vations and draws ',his conclusions from a reformed Zoological Garden and Whipsnade ; has he nothing to say about Club Rows, Caged Bird Shows and Fun Fairs ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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