56 



Bird Notes and News 



An interesting article in the Tiynes on 

 " Waxing and Waning Species " happily 

 indicates another, and it is to be hoped 

 more healthy feature of modem game- 

 preservation. 



" Nowadays on many estates a greater 

 interest in wild English life has led to more 

 mercy being shown to birds of prey. The 

 sparrow-hawk has happily re-appeared to 

 nest in woods where he has long been un- 

 familiar ; owls and kestrels — almost always 

 harmless to game — are more often spared, 

 and landlords who are anxious to exter- 

 minate the destructive crows and jays are 

 fewer than those who wish to keep them 

 within strict limits. There is no fear that a 

 slight increase of birds of prey will seriously 

 reduce the number of nightingales and other 

 small birds." 



Many little birds, the writer goes on, who 

 formerly found a nesting-place in the trees 

 of old-fashioned orchards, are homeless in 

 those of the new and well-kept kind where 

 there is hardly a crevice for the smallest 

 and most enterprising Tits. Hole-building 

 species generally, such as Nuthatches, Tits, 

 Redstarts, Woodpeckers, and Wrynecks 

 have fallen on evil days, and will " need for 

 the future the artificial assistance of nesting- 

 boxes, and all the encouragement that careful 

 protection can give them, to compensate for 

 the old wealth of nesting-places in rent and 

 decayed forest-trunks which has vanished 

 with increasing cultivation." 

 * * * 



Mr. T. E. Burrows, of Dosthill, one of the 

 keenest of several keen Nature-Study 

 teachers in Warwickshire, sends an interesting 

 note on a carving on a capital in Elford 

 Church, representing a Swallow feeding its 

 young. The story goes that the sculptor 



was undecided in what manner to complete 

 his work on this column, when a SwaUow 

 foimd its way into the church, built a nest 

 among the unfinished masonry. He accepted 

 the incident as a heaven-sent inspiration, 

 and when the birds were flo\vn the capital 

 was beautifully completed with a representa- 

 tion of the " temple -haunting " bird and its 

 nest and young. Possibly other readers of 

 Bird Notes and News have come across sculp- 

 tured birds in various churches which might 

 be recorded ? There is, for instance, the 

 Oldham chantry at Exeter Cathedral with 

 its array of Little Owls — intended only as a 

 pun on " Owl-dom," but charming all the 



same. 



* * * 



Now that bird-lovers are thinking of bird- 

 tables and provender for their little friends, 

 " A Hampshire Bird-Lover " points out how 

 rapidly of late man has reduced the supply 

 of the birds' natural winter food. Since the 

 coming of the motor especially, hedges have 

 been thinned and cut back ruthlessly, with 

 consequent wholesale destruction of hips, 

 haws, and other hedge-row berries ; while 

 holly is early cut and carted up to town 

 for " decorations." It is a little hard, 

 after singing lustily at the harvest festi- 

 val " By Him the birds are fed," to do 

 our best to deprive them of that food 

 right and left ; and it is suggested that 

 friends of birds should allow no hedge-cutting 

 on their property, no trimming of ivy or other 

 berried creepers, until the hard weather is 

 over, and should persuade landowning neigh- 

 bours to do the same. It is even possible 

 to plant berry-bearing trees with a view to 

 the bird's winter : they are all ornamental. 



