Mexborough and Swinton Times November 19, 1937
Fine Feathers
Wombwell Girl’s Interesting Hobby
Foreign Birds
Miss Elizabeth Spence with some of her pets.
Of all the hobbies open to the fair sex appropriate and none perhaps is more interesting than keeping birds. This at least is the opinion of Wombwell’s Latest fancier, Miss Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Mr. William Spencer who lives in the gasworks yard. Miss Spencer was attracted to this fancy less than twelve months ago and has so far advanced in the cult that she now has one of the finest aviaries in the district. She also has ambitions toward the show bench and to-morrow (Saturday) will be making her first bid in that direction at a show at Ecclesfield where she will exhibit three pairs—black-headed nuns, green singing finches and pink-cheeked wax-bills.
Miss Spencer has concentrated on foreign birds and her aviary is a riot of brilliant plumage. Among her stock are no fewer than thirteen distinct varieties including orange bishops, South African fire-finches, golden song sparrows, grey Java sparrows, silver bills, zebra finches, red crested cardinals, paradise wyhdas, and cambasous. The red crested cardinals, which arrived a few days ago, are the pride of her aviary but she loves all her birds and talks to them as though they were human.
Beautiful Plumage.
Foreign birds have little to recommend them in the matter of vocal accomplishments but they are surpassing beautiful as regards colouring. Exquisite in its delicate shading for example is the Paradise Wyhda which has a black back with breast feathers merging from brown into a creamy yellow which can only be compared to the colouring of a genuinely matured Meerschaum pipe. The colouring of another pair is perfect navy blue, while the zebra finches come definitely up to the zebra standard. The red crested cardinals are a very striking pair—and excellent songsters too. There is not a bird in the whole collection that does not shine like shot silk.
Some of Miss Spencer’s birds are the tiniest things imaginable—no bigger in fact than the fancies used on wedding cakes. Get a green singing finch in the centre of your closed palm for example and it feels no more than a butterfly or a “wish.” The birds are all happy in one little community but the pairs are seldom separated. It so happened when a -Times” reporter inspected the aviary that the fire-finches were not on speaking terms and had their backs to each other! Otherwise they were all twittering in perfect peace, love and harmony.
Are foreign birds expensive or difficult to keep? No. Miss Spencer says the first cost is the greater. One supply of bird feed lasting nine or ten weeks costs only 3s. 4d. “I don’t call that expensive,” she commented. The birds are fed chiefly on millet usually served in the natural sprays so that a certain amount of exertion is demanded. They also like groundsel on the menu in season and other green stuff with a little cuttle-fish bone to keep them in good fettle.
The fancier must not forget that these birds come mainly from tropical countries and cannot stand the cold. Open windows must be avoided in the winter. So far Miss Spencer has not lost a single bird and she does not think that any fancier is likely to suffer casualties given reasonable care. She is not in the hobby for profit but she thinks it is not impossible to make money out of it. She spends many happy hours with the birds and would not he without them for the world.
Miss Spencer has one other hobby and that is swimming. When at Barnsley Road Council School. Wombwell. she one of the school swimming cheque for three years in succession and holds a certificate of the Royal Life Saving Society, a useful accomplishment for a person living within 10 yards of the canal!