66 



Bird Notes and News 



weary travellers may settle. All around 

 the platform and on the roof he fixed 

 ladder-like perches of wood or of iron 

 covered with cloth, as much as possible 

 within view of the light ; the birds, he 

 found, not liking to be in the dark. His 

 experiments have been on trial for three 

 years at one of the principal lighthouses 

 of Holland. He writes — 



" At the Terschelling Lighthouse on the 

 Frisian Islands things were very bad indeed 

 some years ago. Terschelling is a verj- 

 important locality in the biggest migration 

 route of the continent, which splits up there, 

 ■one branch crossing to the EngHsh coast, 

 the other keeping along the North Sea 

 towards the South. The light is very 

 strong— thirty miUion candle-power. On 

 migration nights numbers of birds circled 

 round the revolving light, till they fell 

 exhausted and dying, thousands perishing 

 in a single night. At present the mortality 

 does not exceed a hundred during the whole 

 migraticn time.'''' 



On a dark night every perch is occupied, 

 the birds clinging to them in clusters to 

 the number of ten thousand. When 

 dawn arrives the whole company, includ- 

 ing even the latest comers and the most 

 tired, rise up and pursue their journey. 



The experiment having proved so 

 successful, the Prussian Government has 

 sent a commission to inspect Heer 

 Thijsse's contrivances ; they are also 

 being studied by the French Commission 

 de la Chasse and the St. Hubert Club. 

 Great Britain, lying in the great migration 

 routes, and owing what she does to 

 immigrant birds, could hardly remain 

 indifferent. The Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds obtained full particu- 

 lars of the scheme from Heer Thijsse and 

 other correspondents, and a Deputation 

 representing its Council waited on the 

 Elder Brethren of Trinity House on 

 January 29th. The deputation con- 

 sisted of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, Keeper of 

 the Natural History Department, Royal 



Scottish Museum ; Mr. W. R. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, of the Zoological Department, 

 British Museum (Natural History), and 

 Captain T. M. J. Tailby, Members of 

 Council of the R.S.P.B. ; and Mr. F. E. 

 Lemon, Member of Council and Hon. Sec. 

 They were courteously and sympathetic- 

 ally received ; and in the result, after 

 consultation with the Chief Engineer, the 

 Board have consented to erect and test 

 the contrivance at two English Light- 

 houses, St. Catherine's on the coast of 

 the Isle of Wight, and the Caskets in the 

 English Chamiel ; both of these are on 

 main migration lines and both account 

 for the loss of great numbers of migrants. 



It remains for the Society to raise the 

 funds, the expenditure being obviously 

 outside the direct purposes of the Trinity 

 House. The Council of the Society for 

 the Protection of Birds has guaranteed 

 the money for the initial experiment, in 

 order that the work may be done in time 

 for the migrations of this spring. The 

 cost is not great, and a comparatively 

 small sum will enable thorough trial to 

 be made at the two lighthouses selected 

 and, it is beUeved, will save thousands 

 of birds. It is hoped, however, that the 

 response to the appeal will be prompt 

 and generous in order that the Society 

 may proceed, as soon as success is 

 assured, to equip other British light- 

 houses in a similar manner. 



At the Society's annual meeting, on 

 March 6th, 1913, Lord Curzon of Kedle- 

 ston headed the Special Fund with a 

 donation of £25, and other sums were 

 promised. Amounts large or small will 

 be gladly received, and a list of sub- 

 scriptions will be published in the Summer 

 Number of Bird Notes and News. 



It has to be remembered that the loss 

 of most of these migratory birds is not 

 only a loss of summer song, a lessening 

 of country delight, but is a serious 



