Bird Notes and News 



43 



BIRDS AND WEED SEEDS. 



The Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture 

 for June, 1921, has a lengthy note on " The 

 Suppression of Weeds : National Necessity." 

 " During the war," it is stated, " weeds and the 

 effort to get rid of them cost British farmers 

 millions o"f pounds." Deep ploughing, harrow 

 cultivation, scarifying, fallowing, liming, 

 smother-crojDS, and hand-pulling are dealt with : 

 but the only mention of Birds is to the effect 

 that they, like human beings and animals, " are 

 effective agents in distributing weed seeds." 

 Yet a work by a member of this very Ministry 

 and by a Professor of Agriculture has pointed 

 out how vast is the quantity of weed-seed eaten 

 by small birds, by all the Finches, by the 

 Bimtings, even by the Woodpigeon. They 

 form indeed the main subsistence of the winter 

 flocks of Linnets, Chaflinches, and Greenfinches. 

 The Ministry of Agriculture is blind to the 

 millions of these little beaks constantly at 

 work : ploughs and scarifiers are undoubtedly 

 larger objects. The State Ornithologist of 

 Massachusetts, Dr. Forbush, on the other 

 hand writes : — 



" The quantity of such seeds annually eaten by 

 birds in Massachusetts is beyond computation. Where 

 seed-eating birds are numerous they get nearly all the 

 seeds of certain weeds ; and if the farmer takes pains 

 to attract and protect them, they may be of great 

 assistance to him in the problem of weed destruction. 

 Dr. Judd found about 525 birds eating weed seed from 

 a single acre in Maryland, and estimated that thej' 

 destroyed 46,000 seeds for their breakfast." {Useful 

 Birds and their Protection" p. 279.) 



BIRD PROTECTION IN SOUTH AFRICA, 



If the work of protecting useful birds in 

 South Africa advances as it should, success will 

 be mainly due to men like Professor Ernest 

 Warren, of Natal Museum, and Mr. F. W. Fitz- 

 Simons, of Port Elizabeth Museum, who have 

 used the widely-circulating Press to educate 

 the public. Mx. FitzSimons, whose works 

 on South African natural history are well known, 

 and who has for some time contributed vigorous 

 articles on " Birds and Food " to the Farmer's 

 Weekly (Bloemfontein) has also written a book 

 on " Birds and their Value to Man," but 

 unfortunately publishers are chary of useful 

 literature in these days, and the EngHsh firm 

 approached will issue it only when a good 

 subscription list guarantees them from loss. 

 Friends of the Colony will hope this may soon be 

 effected. Prizes are being offered to school 



teachers in the Union and Rhodesia for essays 

 on the same subject, and an effort is also being 

 made to form a Bird Protection Society for 

 South Africa. 



" THE FAIRIES' CORNER." 



In the course of a correspondence in The 

 Observer on the subject of Birds in London and 

 Bird Sanctuaries, the Secretary of the R.S.P.B. 

 (Miss L. Gardiner) wrote (May 29th, 1921) :— 



In one of his charming speeches about birds Sir 

 John Cockbum, I remember, alluded to the old 

 superstition (Irish, I believe ?) that on every estate 

 and every little bit of landed property, one fraction or 

 comer must be left wild and incult and sacred for the 

 " little people," the fairies, for luck. These little 

 people were, of course, said Sir John, the wild birds, 

 to whom ill every garden and park a patch of wild 

 woodland should be made over. They repay the gift 

 many times, not merely, like Milton's goblin, by the 

 work of one night — v/ith the " shadowy flail that 

 threshed the corn " in return for the cream-bowl duly 

 set — but by work day in, day out, all the seasons, in 

 policing plants and trees and fruit and green crops 

 from a myriad insect foes, and by each summer's feast 

 of song. 



Why, then, should not every public and private 

 park, and each garden big enough for delight, have 

 its comer reserved for the " little people " in feathers ? 

 Nominally, almost every public park in our country 

 is a sanctuary for birds ; that is to say, rules against 

 taking of nests and eggs appear among the lengthy 

 regulations in more or less indistinct lettering at the 

 gates, or are stored in the authority's archives. But 

 if, beginning with Richmond Park, all these places were 

 sanctuaries in fact, each -ndth its fairy comer or comers 

 religiously preserved from public and gardeners ; if 

 notices prominently prohibited interference with bird 

 life in all the area, and such rules were enforced ; if 

 some addition were made of well-chosen fruiting trees 

 and shrubs beloved by birds, near the fairy comer, with 

 a bird fountain when no water is otherwise obtainable, 

 and even some eleemosynary grain and nuts and other 

 food in severe weather, there would soon be a choras 

 of song of unfamiliar variety and charm, and the sight 

 of many hitherto unknown fairy forms flitting among 

 the trees, to gladden the ear and eye, and medicine 

 the soul of the town-dweller. The public would gain 

 infinitely, incomparably, more delight and instruction 

 than they ever obtain by curious stares into the depths 

 of a dreary " aviary " where a few " specimens " drag 

 out unnatural little lives. 



A good deal of money is or has been spent on such 

 aviaries. A good deal also on gravel and lawn-mowers 

 and weed-ldllcrs, on choice flowers and trim shrubs 

 and trees, even on rock gardens and pergolas ; but the 

 trail of the rake and broom is over all. 



On one occasion when this society made one of its 

 numerous appeals for brief and emphatic notices against 

 bird-nesting, such as appear in Kew Gardens, to be put 

 up in a park where it was unblushingly pursued, the 

 reply was given that the sight of such placards would 

 be objectionable to visitors and interfere with the 

 amenities of the place. So incormptible is the tidiness 

 of officials. 



