32 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



NOTES. 



Royal Scottish Museum. 



Bird protectors have heard with pleasure of the 

 appointment of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, F.R.S.E., to 

 succeed Dr. Traquair as Keeper of the Natural 

 History Collections of the Royal Scottish Museum 

 (Edinburgh). Mr. Eagle Clarke had been an 

 officer of the Museum for eighteen years, and has 

 done much to increase the value of its collections ; 

 but his reputation extends very far beyond this 

 work by reason of his ornithological researches, 

 notably by the investigations which have made him 

 the first authority in Great Britain on the subject 

 of Migration. A member of the British Associa- 

 tion's Committee on Migration, he undertook the 

 preparation of the report arising out of the series 

 of phenomena investigated, a work which occupied 

 nine years in execution ; and he also at the British 

 Association's request prepared a report on the 

 movements of certain birds selected to include 

 every type of migrant that visits British or Irish 

 coasts. While compiling these records Mr. Clarke 

 sojourned on lighthouses and lightships, on remote 

 islands, and in the marshes of the Danube and 

 Rhone. Mr. Clarke has for the last ten years 

 actively interested himself in the work of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds ; his help has 

 always been most valuable, and since 1902 he has 

 kindly acted as the Society's Hon. Secretary for 

 Edinburgh. 



The Traffic in Birds. 



Perhaps no one has a better chance of noting 

 the illegal capture of wild birds than the carriers 

 to whom boxes and crates are entrusted by the 

 bird-catchers. It is a common enough sight to see 

 such boxes at country railway stations ; but it is 

 usually looked upon as nobody's business to inter- 

 fere, and the package is sent on its way to the 

 town dealer's shop, where evidence as to when and 

 where the birds were caught is at once lost. The 

 stationmaster at Frome takes a more public- 

 spirited view of the matter. According to the 

 annual report of the Weston-super-Mare branch of 

 the R.S.P.C.A., a crate containing song-birds, 

 including forty Goldfinches, was deposited at 

 Frome Station for conveyance to London. Gold- 

 finches are protected throughout the year in 

 Somerset, and the stationmaster, without waiting 

 to argue the matter out with the police or write to 

 the papers, liberated all the birds. The catchers 

 threatened an action for damages ; probably they 



were surprised to find themselves prosecuted, con- 

 victed, and fined £5 and costs, and to be recom- 

 mended by the Bench to tell their brethren that 

 the next case would be more severely dealt with. 



"A Shilling a Dozen. " 



A glance at any one of the several papers devoted 

 more or less to the cage-bird business indicates 

 the extent of the trade, and might be instructive to 

 those who have vague ideas that the caging of 

 wild birds is confined to an occasional Thrush or 

 Skylark. In one week's issue, selected at random, 

 are advertised for sale Whitethroats, Willow- 

 Wrens, and other Warblers, Nightingales, Fly- 

 catchers, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Bullfinches, Chaf- 

 finches, Redpolls, Wrens, Yellowhammers, Wheat- 

 ears, Wagtails, Bramblings, Larks, Jays, Ravens, 

 — " over 200 Skylarks in stock,"' " thousands of 

 birds coming in to pick from." Most numerous of 

 all are the Goldfinches — ''grand Worcestershire 

 Goldfinches," " Genuine Worcestershire cock Gold- 

 finches " (Worcestershire County Council, please 

 note), "real English 1906 Goldfinches"; and 

 Linnets — Linnets, the blithe, sociable little 

 dwellers on open common and downland — " Lin- 

 nets, Linnets, buy from the catcher, any dying on 

 transit replaced," " Linnets, Linnets, warranted all 

 cocks," Linnets from one shilling each to one 

 shilling a dozen. It is a game to which there are 

 many invitations ; " Self-acting spring net traps, 

 catch birds of every description without any 

 attention," bird-lime " hold anything," trap-cages, 

 bird-calls, nets, call-cages, Nightingale traps 

 " 8,000 sold," " Cages, cages, cages ! " 



" Bird singing. 

 Sunday, August 

 finches, 8 p.m. 

 burgh, ." 



Entries wanted for handicap, 

 26th. Linnets, 1 p.m. ; Chaf- 

 Good prizes. — Duke of Edin- 



Obituary. 



Last year the Bird and Tree celebrations in 

 Cumberland were saddened by the sudden death 

 of Canon Thornley, Vicar of Kirkoswald, one of 

 the heartiest supporters of the movement in that 

 county, who died, it will be remembered, on the 

 very eve of the Kirkoswald Festival. This year 

 Westmoreland has to deplore the loss of Mr. T. 

 Leslie Jackson, Master of Warcop School, who 

 died under tragic circumstances on July 17th. 

 From the first introduction of the scheme into his 

 county in 1903. Mr. Jackson took up the work with 

 enthusiasm ; the school carried off the Shield every 

 year, and the Warcop Festival eclipsed the old- 



