The birds of Calcutta / by Frank Finn.

  • Frank Finn
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The birds of Calcutta / by Frank Finn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intermediate between a starling and a weaver-bird, while the real Orioles have a form and style peculiarly their own. It must be confessed that the American birds are much more interesting ; they also tend to range northwards more than do the Old World Orioles, and hence help to enliven the United States to a very great extent, some of the most brilliant and common birds there belonging to this troupial family. We might have more brilliant birds in England if we could only let them alone ; I have already alluded to the persecution of our one Oriole, and even the green woodpecker is oftener seen in a bird stuffer’s shop window than on a tree in the open ! As the Oriole is one of the brightest birds I am dealing with, I may perhaps be allowed to conclude with an earnest appeal to all Anglo-Indians to help in the preservation of beautiful birds, which exist in every country under difficulties, both from natural enemies and from man. The plain-coloured species can take care of themselves out here at any rate ; but beauty is everywhere a fatal gift to the lower animals, and it is very much to be hoped that the recent enactment will preserve against the export of skins the more brilliant kinds whose danger is the greatest. Even about Calcutta we have in the larger kingfisher, the blue-jay, the golden-backed woodpecker, and the subject of the present chapter, a quartette of birds
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