Читать книгу Incomparable Budgerigars - All about Them, Including Instructions for Keeping, Breeding and Teaching Them to Talk - Percy Gladstone Frudd - Страница 7

SOME, who pick up this book, will probably wonder who “A Fascinating Little Fellow” really is. If you will read these stories I feel sure that you will agree that he is a fascinating little chap. Of course I refer to THE BUDGERIGAR (Melopsittacus undulaius, Shaw).

“Penelope and her Pierrot” and other stories included in this book are based on incidents taken from the lives of these handsome pets. They are founded upon true incidents and are not pure, unadulterated fiction as the cynic might suppose.

I dare say I shall be accused of ‘window dressing’ my stories. Well, if adding dialogue to make the stories interesting is ‘window dressing’, then I plead guilty; but let me assure my readers who may not be aware of the fact—Budgerigars can be taught to talk. There are many thousands of them in the British Isles who are speaking freely, and since these stories first appeared in The Yorkshire Observer their number has increased many times over.

But it is not the faculty of being able to reproduce human speech alone which makes them so fascinating, but because they are on their own initiative born mimics, mischievous and probably the most intelligent of all birds.

Hardy, quite inexpensive to keep; and, requiring the very minimum of attention to keep in a perfectly healthy condition, they are no burden on the exchequer of even the humblest person who would wish to avail himself of their pleasant companionship.

This volume is not intended to be a scientific treatise on the upkeep and management of these pets—there are many books already available for the expert—but is written primarily to interest the reader in these gorgeous creatures, and then to tell him in plain, simple language how to train and keep them as they should be kept.

These stories have brought many hundreds of new ‘fanciers’ to our ranks in the North; but, of far more importance, they have been the means of many more people acquiring a new ‘friend’ This fact is of sufficient importance to make it imperative that I should explain how these stories first came into being (they are unique in the fact that never before have such stories about birds been published), and at the same time pay a tribute to certain gentlemen who made the general public in the north of England ‘budgie-conscious’, for the first time.

In June, 1936, while engaged in promoting The Yorkshire Budgerigar Society, I went along with Mr. J. W. Whitworth, the first secretary of the society, to Mr. O. B. Stokes, editor of The Bradford Telegraph and Argus, to see if we could not persuade this gentleman to give us some publicity for our pets.

Mr. Stokes was so interested that he secured for us an interview with Mr. F. H. Timperley, the General Manager of The Bradford and District Newspaper Co. Ltd., who quickly turned a sympathetic ear towards us. It is to this gentleman of vision that all budgerigar fanciers, all people who have since acquired them as pets, owe a deep debt of gratitude for his foresight and the help that he gave us.

Before the discussion had proceeded very far, Mr. Timperley suggested that he should promote a show, on lines which had hitherto been unthought of, to help to make the people of the North budgie-conscious, if I would find the necessary organization from the fanciers of the West Riding to work the show.

The title of the show was agreed to be, The First Annual Yorkshire Observer Budgerigar and Foreign Bird Show; and it was then that Mr. S. Oddy, editor of that paper, came into the picture. I shall ever remember this gentleman as one of the kindest, most sympathetic of all men.

During my discussion with Mr. Oddy on the publicity which should be given to the show in his paper, the question was mooted of placing before the public matter pertaining to the budgerigar in a novel form, such as these stories. He encouraged and advised me, with the result that “Penelope and her Pierrot” and other stories were written by me and published by him in his newspaper.

If ever success should crown my efforts as an author I shall owe it all to Mr. Oddy, who helped me so much.

Next I would like to mention Mr. W. I. Noddle, the Sales Manager of this company. To him fell the secretarial duties connected with the project. It was with Mr. Noddle that I spent most of the time I was engaged upon this show. A more tireless, efficient colleague I have yet to find. In the short space of ten weeks we had everything ready; and whatever praise has come to me for my part, as chairman and show-manager of that colossal undertaking, must be shared by Mr. Noddle, for without his help I could never have done it. Tribute must also be paid to my assistant show-manager, Mr. Harold Parkinson and my committee of forty enthusiastic people whose one aim seemed to be ‘to succeed’ Working as one man they were a wonderful team of which I was proud to be the head.

Then came the show itself. It was only then that the true genius of Mr. F. H. Timperley was seen. He is a born showman; he can visualize the finished product—and in this case it was par excellence. Here I must mention the name of Mr. John Dennison. It was Mr. Dennison and his assistants who did the hard work.

We created a world’s record—1,507 entries staged magnificently. The South, up to this time the recognized leaders, suddenly became aware that the North had taken the initiative.

The beginners class of 117 was astounding. This was proof positive that people had read these stories in the paper and had fallen for ‘This Fascinating Little Fellow’.

This year, 1937, we established a new world’s record of 1,747 entries, thus giving the world something to think about, as well as a difficult task to accomplish, if they would beat this figure. Upwards of 15,000 people visited the show each year in the two days it was held.

After many requests to put these stories in book form I decided to do so. Now read about this fascinating little fellow for yourself and see if you can resist his spell.