The mortality among birds caught for the cage market is
very high. Years ago I got on to the tracks of a trapper who caught large numbers of tree-creepers by the device of a sort of wire bracket treated with bird lime, and fixed to the trunk of a tree. The bird was caught as, in its mouse-like way, it slipped under this gallows. Such trapping is repellent, and should be definitely prohibited. The offence is doubtless much more flagrant in other countries than in England, and in some is, or was, encouraged by public institutions. Visiting the Zoo on Sydney harbour, which in most respects is one of the best in the world—in site perhaps the very best—I was horrified to find cages packed with finches, all netted in the north of Australia. Their colours were lovely, and were so much admired that the birds could be sold in large numbers at a good profit. The exchequer of the Zoo profited not a little. But money made at such a cost in life and happiness is dear money, that no society should be permitted to acquire. It is tainted and the public opinion that allows it is tainted.
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