“The Press” In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30541, 9 September 1964, Page 16

“The Press” In 1864

SEPTEMBER 9. IMPORTATION O F ENGLISH BIRDS, &c.— We have before mentioned the spirited effort made by Mr Prince, who returned from England in the British Empire, to introduce into the province a large number of English birds, and unfortunately ill success attended his endeavours. Mr Prince has since obiiged us with the following particulars:— He placed on board ship 337 of the smaller kinds of singing birds, including blackbirds, thrushes, linnets, goldfinches, skylarks, &c.; 24 pheasant and three brace of partridges; 18J pairs of pigeons: 38 F owls; also, five dogs, viz., two Dalmatian pups, two fox terrier do., and a retriever Newfoundland; and 60 gold and silver fish. Of these, the pigeons accomplished the voyage very successfully; only one died, and there was an increase of five pairs. The dogs, too, came safe, as did 17 of the pheasants, though the

number of the partridges was reduced to four. But only half-a-dozen of the fish arrived, and the mortality was equally great among the singing bii-ds, only 34 of which were brought to land. These comprised 8 linnets, 1 blackbird, 2 goldfinches, 1 chaffinch, 2 yellow hammers, 1 canary, 3 bramble finches, 1 grey parrot, 5 thrushes, 2 skylarks, 3 robins, 3 green linnets, 1 starling, 1 missel thrush. The weekly paper published on board the ship under the name of the British Empire Gazette gives the following account of the causes which led to this unfortunate loss. . . It says:—“Circumstances. were in more ways than one unfortunate to his success. First, having been led to believe that this vessel would sail early in May instead of June, he had to procure his young birds too early, and all the old ones that could then be procured (it being the building season) must, of course, not be in a desirable state for close con-

finement. Again trusting to Messrs Shaw, Saville & Co., who,- we believe, promised that all arrangements for him should be complete on his bringing all his birds on board, he did not call oh the captain till we were'about to sail, when, to his great astonishment, no preparations had been made for him; and thus the creatures had to be huddled together in the best places that Captain Callenan could afford him. One cabin on the poop was given him for his small birds, and some of the captain’s own coops for his fowls, and as much facility as was possible in this then-crowded ship was given him. MrPrince was copiously supplied with everything necessary in the shape of provisions, and we can testify to his untiring efforts, aided by his two or three assistants, with whom he was at work from four o’clock every morning till late at night to preserve the lives of his charges but to little avail."