' PSITTACOSIS AND THE STARLING [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Many readers will be grateful to Sir Esme Howard for
his article on caged birds in your issue of June 7th. - His comparison to the traffic in caged wild birds with the horrors of the slave trade is a just one. The cruelty involved in the caging of our wild birds, even although during their imprisonment they are well fed and well tended, can be realized by all who know the difference between the term " psychology " and the word " physiology." Perhaps the greatest obstacle in the way of a forward movement to end this legalized inhumanity is curiously the attitude of bird protection societies, and in particular the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. I happened recently to be reading the Minutes of Evidence of the Depart. mental .Committee appointed to consider the question of the protection of birds, in 1914, and I read .there the following statement made by Sir Montague Sharpe (then Mr. Montague Sharpe), who at that -time was, and still is, the Chairman of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Question 309
" Then if you proceed on the principle of protecting all birds except. those that do not .require protection, what led you_ to avoid what might seem the simplest thing, namely, to protect all birds, except -those not requiring protection all the year round ? "
Answer (by Mr. Montague Sharpe)l— '
Betause I think you must allow people to get hold of birdi somehow or aka.. There • is the period, of five month:341pm .time .and people-
like to keep birds. Take the case of a bullfinch. Some like to have a bullfinch in a cage, but I think birds are quite safe if they are protected during the breeding season and for seven months in the year. I should hardly care to recommend the whole year, for I think there would be a great deal of opposition to that. I do not want to take only a humanitarian view of it, so I must be careful or try to be."
If this is the attitude of the Chairman of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (who may be pre- sumed to be responsible for the policy of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), is it to be wondered at that this urgent humanitarian movement is languishing while all other humanitarian movements in the country are pro- gressing? Thus it would seem you need expect little progress in the achievement of Sir Esme Howard's ideal.—I am, Sir, &c.,
13 Park Terrace, Glasgow, W. War. JAMIESON.
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