Many years ago I inherited 2 books from my granddad and have never really looked at them properly. I have recently been reading the odd chapters and am amazed! The books are:
Birdroom and Aviary by Rev. C. D. Farrar
Foreign Birds for Garden Aviaries by Alec Brooksbank.
Both written before or about 1900.
They are both about bird keeping, rather than bird watching, and it seems you could buy pairs of just about any sort of bird, British or foreign, from dealers in order to breed from them. This includes Jackdaws, robins, finches, blackcaps, nuthatches, starlings, sandpipers and so on
Cheers, Linda.
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You are right, it is wonderful stuff !! I shall certainly continue to buy my bird food and not attempt to catch ants, wasps or flies. Mind you, I have been known to make my seed, suet and nut mix in one of our pie dishes. But there again, we have a dishwasher!
Hi Sparrow,
What a great find those books were and thanks for sharing them with us. Very entertaining! It's interesting to see how things were done in the 'old days' but thank goodness we've come on a bit since then. I'll stick to buying my birdfood as I wouldn't want to inconvenience cook!
There is something new to learn everyday...
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Ooo SB, you're sooo posh! lol!
Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games [Robert Falcon Scott]
Hello.Reading all this information about getting birdfood in the Victorian era, makes me so glad that I only have to go to a shop or online to get my bird food.
Paul.
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