22 



Bird Notes and News 



Bird Protection in Switzerland. 



At the time of the International Con- 

 vention on Bird Protection, Switzerland 

 stood in the happy position of having 

 already made laws in advance of those 

 recommended by the signatory Powers. 

 Their character, and the general attitude 

 towards bird-life, is markedly superior to 

 that which obtains in Italy, and, so far, 

 in France. The existing law is based on 

 the principles adopted by the Convention, 

 making the utility of birds the ground for 

 protection ; but it possesses also two 

 admirable features : instruction on the 

 subject must be given in schools, and 

 bird-catching by all methods is absolutely 

 prohibited. 



Mdlle. R. de la Rive, whose name is well 

 known to Bird-protectionists in three 

 countries, in writing to the R.S.P.B. to 

 express her satisfaction at the establish- 

 ment of the new Ligue Frangaise pour la 

 Protection des Oiseaux, says : — 



" The Bird Protection movement in France 

 and Switzerland, as is the case in most coun- 

 tries, depends in the main on private activity 

 more than on public initiative, and pro- 

 tection regulations are, in general, due to 

 the unwearying efiforts of individuals, single 

 or grouped, waging war against the indif- 

 ference and apathy of the State. This is 

 far more true of France than of Switzerland. 

 In Switzerland the destruction of small birds 

 has never been a national pastime as it is 

 in France, where the dawn of a new state 

 of things is only now beginning to be felt 

 after ten years of protective legislation. 

 How inadequate legislation, feebly applied 

 and running counter to deeply-rooted in- 

 stincts and habits, must always be is proved 

 in this case, where the trapping, netting, and 

 shooting of insectivorous birds has been 

 carried on from one end of France to the 

 other for the last decade, very much as if 

 there had been no International Conven- 

 tion . . . The"; League hopes that by edu- 



eating the people who destroy, they may 

 be turned into bird protectors, taking 

 measures to avert the decrease of the most 

 precious allies of man, and aiding legislation 

 instead of thwarting it. The League will 

 also discourage the wearing of wild-birds' 

 feathers . . , 



" In Switzerland the plumage question 

 does not play such an important part as it 

 does in France, but the Ligue contre le port 

 des plumes d'Oiseaux sauvages and the Orni- 

 thologische Gesellschaft fUr Vogelkunde und 

 Vdgelschutz are stirring to bring home to the 

 public as well as to the State, the responsi- 

 bility incurred towards other lands by the 

 importation of the feathers of fast-dis- 

 appearing species. 



" M. von Burg, who is president of the 

 Ornithologische Gesellschaft, is also on the 

 State Ornithological Commission, which is 

 making a special study of migratory birds 

 and collecting information as to their decrease 

 in numbers. It is largely due to the efforts 

 of this Society that bird-reservations have 

 been set aside in several parts of Switzerland, 

 chiefly in marshy districts, for the preser- 

 vation of water-fowl. The National Park 

 created in the Engadine by the Bund filr 

 Naturschulz protects more especially the 

 Alpine fauna and flora of the country. 

 The Society has also striven to create nesting- 

 places for the smaller species by drawing 

 the attention of the authorities to the benefits 

 derived from plantations along the railway 

 lines. This system has been very successful 

 in Germany, where many birds are to be 

 found nesting quite fearlessly in the hedges 

 along the lines. It is a measure rendered 

 very necessary in Switzerland by the decrease 

 of hedges as boundaries and of waste-land 

 formerly covered by low copses and bushes. 



" Nesting-boxes for Tits and other birds 

 nesting in holes, have found a warm advocate 

 in Dr. Bourget, a well-known man, whose 

 publications on the subject have roused 

 much interest in the Canton de Vaiid, where 

 boxes have been placed in large numbers 

 in the orchards and near the vineyards. 



" Cats are extremely numerous in Switzer- 

 land, and (io much havoc among the birds. 



