Bird Notes and News 



15 



1917, and anyone who knows aught of the 

 character of the country, geographically or 

 otherwise, knows very well that such laws 

 could not be worth the paper they are printed 



on. 



The pleasing assurance in this anonymous 

 sheet, that the birds are not alarmed is a 

 fairly obvious half-truth . Naturally, when 

 birds are to be shot they are not first scared 

 out of gunshot range. It also serves as re- 

 minder of further precautions now taken on 

 the Paraguay River not to frighten the Egrets 

 from their haunts, as recounted in Mr. L. E, 

 Miller's recent (1918) book on South American 

 wilds ; the gun is abandoned — in favour of 

 poisoned fish scattered over the feeding- 

 grounds. 



Among the newspapers which support the 

 Bill none have done so more wholeheartedly 

 and eloquently than The. Jewish World and The 

 Jewish Chronicle. " From every point of 

 view," says the latter (June 11th, 1920), " this 

 feather trade is a cursed thing." It is interest- 

 ing to remember in this connection that the 

 first Hon. Secretary of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, on its transference to 

 London, was a Jewess. 



An interesting instance of the devotion of 

 birds to their nests is reported to Bird Notes 

 AND News from Hayton Manor Farm, in Kent. 

 While ploughing up a mangel field the carter 

 found a Lapwing's nest with two eggs. He 

 carefully moved it to another spot, and the 

 bird returned and laid two more eggs. In 

 due course she started sitting, and although 

 the nest had to be moved again and again (in 

 all eight times) in the course of harrowing and 

 drilling, four lively little Lapwings were safely 

 hatched out. A good many instances have 

 been narrated of birds following a nest that 

 has been carefully moved out of danger, but 

 this is probably a record. 



* * * 



The Ligue Fran9aise pour la Protection des 

 Oiseaux has decided to found a " Prix Magaud 

 d'Aubusson " in memory of its late President. 

 The subject set for the first year will test the 

 ingenuity of competitors, who are to consider 

 the destruction of useful birds by cats, and to 

 suggest a means of restraining their pro- 

 clivities in that direction without interfering 

 with their activity as mousers ; also to 

 indicate, with evidence, some animals which 

 might replace the domestic cat as regards its 

 virtues. It is to be feared that the perfect 

 animal, which will hunt to order, will be far 

 to seek, like the bird that should discriminate 

 between weed and crop. 



Economic Ornithology. 



A NURSERYMAN ON BIRD-PROTECTION. 



The head of a leading firm of nurserymen, 

 seedsmen, and florists in Cheltenham, writes to 

 the Fruit- Grower (which has been publishing 

 some excellent articles on " Bird-life and Food- 

 Production ") : — 



" The damage done by a few varieties at certain 

 seasons is obvious to all, but the unceasing good most 

 birds do throughout the year passes to a large extent 

 unobserved. The hosts of swallows, martins, swifts, 

 chiff-chaffs, and other soft-billed birds that visit us 

 in their season are all so many police patrolling our 

 skies, trees and hedges, and waging an unending war 

 against the fruit-growers' enemies. Even that much- 

 debated bird, the sparrow, is on the whole decidedly 

 our friend. I have watched them for over 25 years, 

 from the first beginning of the leaf searching assiduously 

 and unceasingly the plum, apple, nut, lime, elm and 

 other trees, and eating aphis, while the number of cater- 

 pillars they account for during the breeding season 

 must be beyond calculation. Doubtless in the corn- 

 fields they become destructive, but the horticulturist 

 has little against them, beyond a few primroses, poly- 

 anthus, crocus and gooseberries, which latter are easily 



protected. The bullfinch and the wood pigeon alone 

 appear to have no claim to protection. 



" It is urged by some persons that bird life has 

 increased and requires thinning. But as the population 

 has grown, cultivation of our land has also increased, 

 and with it also a vast increase in insect life, and a 

 large addition of bird life becomes vitally necessary, 

 being indeed one of the most necessary of all things 

 to the grower." 



Complaint of the wanton destruction of nests 

 and eggs by school-children and youths was 

 never more widespread than during the present 

 summer. Unfortunately it is not only the 

 supporters of the " sparrow " club and other 

 blundering tactics of ignorant scaremongers in 

 war-time, who suffer now from the fatal blunder- 

 ing that actually encouraged such destruction ; 

 the whole country has to groan over the increase 

 in caterpillars, blight, midges, and other plagues. 



" Landowner " writes to the Daily Mail : — 



" All over the country for the last four years trees 

 and shrubs have been stripped bare by insect depre- 

 dations, while at the same time a deplorable campaign, 



