Bird Notes and News 



13 



Notes. 



Cornwall has now a Bird Protection Order. 

 No doubt in time the Duchy will also imbibe 

 a Bird Protection spirit. A correspondent 

 sends the following handbill as illustrative 

 of present-day amusements : — 



St. Stephen's by Saltash 

 Blackbird Shoot, 

 Monday, January 29th, 1912. 

 The following birds to count for 

 Prizes : Blackbirds, Hoops, Home- 

 screeches, Thrushes, Jays, Magpies. 

 A Special Prize will be given for 

 the greatest number of Starlings 

 shot. These birds, however, will not 

 count with the above-mentioned 

 birds. 



Then follow the rules, an appeal for sub- 

 scriptions, and notice of the inevitable dinner 

 at a public -house in celebration of the 

 day's " sport." " Homescreech " is west-of- 

 England for Mistle-Thrush, and " Hoop " 



for Bullfinch. 



* * * 



Not the least of the services performed 

 by the introduction of Bird-and-Tree work 

 into schools is that children may learn the 

 correct names of birds. It may be quaint 

 and interesting from the point of view of 

 the student of country things to hear of 

 an EUygug, a Sandy-Loo, a Cherry-Chopper, 

 or a Blithering Tam ; but if these are the 

 only names known, what avails it for County 

 Councils to issue edicts for the protection 

 of Guillemot, Ringed Plover, Flycatcher, 

 or Stonechat ? In a prosecution at Weston- 

 super-Mare the other day* it appeared that 

 the shooter of a " Sea-pie " did not know he 

 was unlawfully killing a bird protected as 

 an Oyster-catcher. If the Staffordshire game- 

 keeper, convicted of shooting a Bittern, had 



* See page 16. 



said that he knew the bird only as a Bumble, 

 a Butter-Bump, a Buttle, or a Bumpy-Coss 

 (all among the Bittern's aliases), some 

 allowance might have been made for him. 

 As it happened the defence was that he did 

 not know the bird at all, which is no defence ; 

 no keeper should be employed who shoots 

 at birds he does not know. It is suggested 

 that the County Councillor who objected 

 the other day to the protection of the Bee- 

 eater was under the impression that he was 

 talking about the Great Tit ; and reports 

 as to the abundance of Goldfinches in certain 

 districts have to be received with caution 

 until it is certain that the birds alluded to 

 are not Yellow-hammers. Unless, indeed, to 

 call a bird a Goldfinch proves it to be one ; 

 after the fashion of a correspondent of one 

 of the newspapers during the discussion on 

 the Lark question, who proved completely to 

 his own satisfaction that there are " Ground 

 Larks " because Buntings are called by that 



name in the Fens. 



* * * 



The recent report in the papers that a 

 ton and a half of Larks were, during one 

 week in February last, sent up from Royston 

 to the London food-market, led to various 

 explanations. " These Larks are not Sky- 

 larks " ; " Skylarks are injurious to the 

 farmer and must be killed " ; they are " only 

 migrants," and therefore their slaughter 

 is of no consequence. An interview in the 

 Daily News with one of the catchers is 

 eminently characteristic. " I mind snaring 

 larks this forty year, and I never see any 

 wrong in it. . . Snaring larks has put many 

 a shilling into the pockets of a poor man 

 when he wanted the money badly. I've 

 earned a pound a day lark-snaring easy. . . 



