Is there any comprehensive guide on Foxwarren Park? (1 Viewer)

[Melanie]

Foxwarren Park was a famous avian facility near Cobham, Surrey which was run by Alfred Ezra from 1919 to the 1950s. Books like "The Living Air" by Jean Theodore Delacour (1967) and "The Ark in Our Midst: The Story of the Introduced Animals af Britain; Birds, Beasts, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fishes" by Richard Fitter (1959) have only few material on that topic. My question is: was there ever an illustrated guide or book which tells the complete story of this unique zoo?

 

[Mike Earp]

... was there ever an illustrated guide or book which tells the complete story of this unique zoo?

There are a few articles (which I have not seen) that might have additional details:

• Jean Delacour 1926, The birds at Foxwarren Park. Avicultural Magazine, 4th Series, 4: 37–41. (Cited at http://www.avisoc.co.uk/table-of-contents/jean-delacour-and-the-avicultural-magazine-part-ii/ with extracts.)
  
• Jean Delacour 1926. Birds of Foxwarren – Mr. Alfred Ezra's aviary. L'Oiseau 7(6). [In French.]
  
• D. Seth-Smith 1940. The Foxwarren collection. Avicultural Magazine, 5th Series, 5: 3–7. (Cited in Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World by Eugene M. McCarthy.)

There is also this brief passage from Casey A. Wood 1926. Lessons in Aviculture from English Aviaries. The Condor 28(1): 3–30.

XIV. THE AVIARIES OF MR. ALFRED EZRA AT FOXWARREN PARK
In the extensive grounds of this beautiful country house there were many elaborate aviaries, some of them in course of erection. On the lawns walked gracefully about both Abyssinian and Stanley cranes; in the woods, at the rear of a line of aviaries, we saw lovely Impeyan Pheasants. The principal aviary terrace had a dozen units with elaborately heated houses of refuge and nesting resorts. The flights were large and well planted with hardy trees and shrubs. This long row of bird houses Mr. Ezra plans to make still more extensive, for the accommodation of additional birds for show and breeding purposes. A feature in several of his movable aviaries (then under construction) was that the flights were covered one-quarter with galvanized iron, to give the occupants ample protection. There were many extremely rare specimens captive in this collection, among them a blue Alexandrine Parakeet and a white (albino) Mynah. Spreo superbus was bred (as a captive) for the first time in avian history at Foxwarren Park; this starling has laid eggs in other houses on several occasions, but without incubating.​

 

[Melanie]

@Mike,
thank you very much for the information.

Alfred Ezra published many articles about the birds in Foxwarren Park in the Avicultural Magazine, including several about the Pink-headed duck and one paper about the first British breeding success of the Rothschild's (Bali) Mynah in 1931. Foxwarren Park was also used as guest house during the International Ornithological Congress in Oxford in 1934.