Bird Notes & News 



Vol. V. ] 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



SEPTEMBER, 1912. 



[No. 3. 



Brean Down : The Hill of Birds. 



A BEAUTIFUL thing has been done for the 

 birds of Britain. A sanctuary has been 

 found in the west country, where some 

 of the rarest and strangest can hence- 

 forth build their nests, rear their young, 

 and hve in peace, and where those who 

 love them may watch their ways. 



Of " protected areas " there are alread}^ 

 a certain number in Britain^ ; but 

 this Hill of Birds, Brean Down, is the 

 most important and the most romantic 

 place of its kind that yet exists in our 

 green islands ; and only the funds are 

 needed to ensure it to the birds as a 

 breeding and dwelling-place in perpetuitj'. 



Brean Down is in Somersetshire, a 

 rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea, 

 within sight of the bathing-machines of 

 Weston-super-Mare. Mr. Hudson has 

 likened it finely to a hippopotamus stand- 

 ing bellj^'-deep in African waters. That 

 is hoAv it appears from a distance. But 

 walk along the sands for a mile and a 

 half until you come right up to the queer 



stranded hill and hsten to the Curlews on 

 the mud flats, and you will think that 

 Brean Down looks a fitting refuge for 

 the Raven and the Peregrine, the Ring- 

 Ouzel and the Whimbrel, the Sheld-drake 

 and the Rock-Pipit — a splendid dome 

 heaving itself out of the surf into the sky. 

 Luckily for the birds nobody can 

 approach their hill except by ferry across 

 the river Axe or along the coast from the 

 south — the side away from Weston ; and 

 the latter is a long tramp over flat pasture 

 lands which extend right away to the 

 blue Quantocks. Having crossed the 

 ferry you are at the threshold of the hill. 

 It is tenanted by Mr, Jesse Hawkings, 

 who will perhaps tell visitors who are 

 members of the R.S.P.B. something about 

 the Ravens and their even fiercer neigh- 

 bours the Peregrines, and about other 

 birds the Society and he protect. Pos- 

 sibly he may also show them his Kiwi 

 skin and the old skeletons which his 

 sons have dug up on the foreshore. 



* There are areas in which no birds may 

 be molested and also areas where no eggs 

 may be taken. There is the wide area of 

 Dimgeness, now extending over the Kentish 

 border to Rye and Pett Level ; there are 

 parts of the coast in Somerset, in Yorkshire, 

 and elsewhere ; portions of river and river- 

 banks ; a little island or two, and some 

 fragments of common-land. These are pro- 

 tected by order of County Councils, or by 

 other enactments ; but for the most part 



there is no guarantee that the law will be 

 respected unless the Royal Society for the 

 Pi'otection of Birds provides Watchers. La 

 the case of the latest addition to the list 

 the Society itself holds the sole rights in 

 the bird-life ; the County Council has, at 

 the Society's request, made of it an area 

 in which all birds and all eggs are to be 

 preserved ; and the Society will have 

 Watchers to watch over their little winged 

 tenants. 



