Since the last Magazine the Committee has received a few more written complaints, including one from the members of The Kent Z.F.C. about the closed coded rings for this year being too small. It has also been noted that there has been a lot of verbal comments passed between members, regarding the size of rings.

This year there seems to be two distinct complaints, the first one that this year's rings were smaller than previous years, and the second one that the ring size used was too small anyway.

The internal diameter of a number of this year's rings, which were claimed by certain members to be smaller, plus some from previous years have been measured for the Committee. The conclusion of these measurements was that the size of this year's rings was very similar to previous years, and not particularly smaller. Although of course the number of rings measured was small compared to the total number of rings sold.

At its recent meeting in August the Committee viewed two Zebra Finches, which had current Zebra Finch closed coded rings on one leg, and the next size up closed ring on the other. The conclusion was that the bigger rings did seem to fit the birds better. These larger rings tending to move round on the birds' legs as they moved, so effectively giving a self "cleaning" action. Whereas the current sized rings tended not to move on the birds' legs, thus allowing the possibility of dirt building up between the bird's leg and the ring. Neither did the larger ring seem too loose, so the bird would not be anymore likely to get its leg caught by the ring on any normal items in its cage or aviary.

Taking all the officially recorded complaints into account, and the samples on the two birds the Committee decided to increase the size of the Society's closed coded rings for 2005 by one size.

In fact the ring size for 2004 was exactly the same as the one for 1953, when the Society first started issuing rings, although a number of years ago the size was increased for a couple of years. In making its decision the Committee had also taken this previous increase into account, and the fact they were returned to their original size, as a result of complaints from members that they could now ring adult birds with the larger ring. Judging by the two birds rung with the larger ring this would now seem to be unlikely, but after all the complaints about rings being too small the Committee would not be too pleased to receive complaints next year that they are now too large!

Just a final note on rings, once ordered, money for rings cannot be refunded, unless of course they are faulty (Incorrectly marked). Once made the rings, marked with the member's code number, are unique to that member and are of no use to anyone else. Neither can the markings on rings be changed by the ring manufacturer, and are therefore no use to the Society.