18 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



in south-west Durham, and in the beautiful Tees 

 valley, and there the birds keep up their numbers 

 fairly well. The quiet city of Durham, too, gives 

 them some amount of sanctuary, Canon Tristram 

 (from whose pen came the ornithology of the 

 Durham History) recording the tree-sparrow, fly- 

 catcher, redstart, white wagtail, stockdove, and 

 wood-owl as birds of "The Banks." Canon 

 Tristram protested with righteous anger against 

 the banishment of the swifts from their breeding- 

 places in the cathedral towers. Such a proceeding, 

 one thinks, must have aroused also the indignation 

 of Dean Kitchin, who used to show with pride a 

 stock-dove's nest in the tower of Winchester 

 Cathedral. 



The Martins of Glamis. 



The swifts were historic dwellers in Durham's 

 Towers — birds probably of longer pedigree than 

 even those blue tits, also Durham's birds, which 

 Professor Newton has told us nested in 1892, where 

 their ancestors had been born and bred since 1779. 

 Another testimony to the well-known attachment 

 of birds to their old homes was given by the Rev. 

 Harcourt Davidson, in his lecture at Perth the 

 other day. The " delicate air " of Glamis Castle 

 still, he said, tempts the temple-haunting martlet 

 to make his pendent bed in the old tower of Mac- 

 beth's Castle. If Shakespeare never visited Forfar 

 this allusion to the martins' nests was, in all likeli- 

 hood, a home touch suggested by a Scot, jealous 

 perhaps for the reputation of his native air ; and 

 thus past and present, poetry and fact, prettily 

 corroborate one another. 



Manxland. 



Yet another bird with a long pedigree is the 

 peregrine falcon of the Isle of Man. In the 15th 

 century " the Kingdom of Man, with all its rights, 

 was granted to Sir John Stanley, by the service of 

 rendering two falcons on paying homage to the 

 king and his successors on coronation day." 

 George the Fourth was the last recipient of this 

 curious presentation in 1821 ; but, happily, the 

 cessation of the gift was not caused by the extinc- 

 tion of the bird, which still breeds in its Manx 

 eyries. Well that he survives ! for the evidence of 

 Mr. Ralfe's recent book on the birds of Manxland 

 indicates that bird-life is none too plentiful on the 

 island. The Manx shearwater, so called because 

 of its former abundance there, is extinct as a 

 breeding species, as the Dartford warbler is at 

 Dartford, and as the Cornish chough soon will be in 

 Cornwall. 



"Birds requiring Protection in Yorkshire." 



The peregrine is one of the rare species still 

 struggling for existence in Yorkshire ; raven, 

 buzzard, stone curlew, dotterel, dunlin, sheldrake, 

 are on the very point of extermination, but may be 

 saved by prompt and vigorous action. The plain 

 and convincing statement with regard to " Birds 

 requiring Protection in Yorkshire,'' which 

 Mr. Riley Fortune, F.Z.S., contributed to The 

 Naturalist for March, 1906, has been reprinted, 

 and is well worth attention, not by Yorkshire 

 people only. His remarks upon two of the principal 

 agents of destruction apply generally : 



" The worst enemies to our rare birds are 

 collectors. Personally, I have no objection to 

 anyone making a collection of eggs in a modest 

 way, but I think the wholesale taking of the eggs 

 of rare birds in clutches is deplorable, and espe- 

 cially when the collector is not satisfied with taking 

 what he requires for his own cabinet, but continues 

 to harry the nests for the purpose of selling the 

 eggs outright, or, what is quite as bad, using them 

 for the purpose of exchange. There are naturalists 

 in our own county who persist in this course, even 

 going to the extent of obtaining access to protected 

 grounds, on the pretence of being anxious to see 

 the birds, being wishful to obtain photographs, 

 or some similar excuse, and, when the secrets have 

 been revealed, afterwards sneaking back and 

 clearing the ground of eggs." 



And as to the depredations of the birdcatcher 

 among goldfinches, linnets, redpolls, twites, etc. : 



" I am not altogether against anyone possessing 

 cage-birds, but I am strongly opposed to the reck- 

 less destruction caused by this nefarious trade. I 

 think I am well within the mark if I say that not 

 one bird in a dozen captured lives more than a day 

 or two ; the rest, crowded together in a vitiated 

 atmosphere, with unsuitable food, perish miserably, 

 while the amount of cruelty piactised is appalling. 

 Birdcatchers are a curse to the country." 



Bird and Tree Essays from schools competing 

 for the Society's County Challenge Shields and 

 team prizes should be sent in by October 1st. It 

 is hoped that none of the teams entered will be 

 missing from the competition. 



At a meeting of the Romford Advisory Com- 

 mittee of the Essex Education Committee, on 

 May 17th, 1906, it was resolved that Bird Life was 

 a branch of Nature Study deserving of encourage- 

 ment in schools, and the Committee suggested the 

 provision of prizes for essays showing original 

 observation, the use of literature supplied by the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and 

 lantern lectures. 



