Bird Notes and News 



79 



and presented a special prize for the best 

 kept note-book. There were songs and 

 recitations, and the whole function was an 

 object lesson on Bird-Protection. 



At HiNTON Waldrist (Berkshire), Captain 

 Loder-Symonds, who gave away the prizes, 

 expressed a hope that other schools in the 

 county would take up the work, so that the 

 Silver Challenge Shield raight come back to 

 Berkshire. 



At Wembdo^t (Somerset) the Rev. E. de 

 St. Croix, in the course of an inspiring 

 address, said he first came in cortact with 

 these excellent Bird-and-Tree Competitions 

 in Norfolk, where he acted as supervisor 

 in the examinations. Many people had 



asked him what were the objects of the 

 Competition, and when he explained, they 

 agreed that it was a splendid work, well 

 worthy of all the support that could be 

 given it. It meant extra work for the 

 headmaster, Mr. Wadmore, for which they 

 should be grateful, and he hoped another 

 year some friend would present a tree for 

 planting. 



An appropriate memorial to the late 

 Colonel Arthur Collins, C.B., has been the 

 purchase of land for a school garden at 

 Hayling, where it is hoped that trees will 

 be planted every " Arbor Day " in order 

 to associate his memory with the Competition 

 in which he took so much interest. 



The Press and Bird Protection. 



SOME COMMENTS ON THE SOCIETY'S ANNUAL MEETING, 1913. 



" London is unhappily the central mart 

 to which hundreds of thousands of skins of 

 rare and rapidly decreasing species are 

 despatched from every continent for distribu- 

 tion in this savage and despicable trade. 

 So long as this is the case, our nation is 

 robbed of much moral authority in appeahng 

 to the Governments and peoples of other 

 European countries to spare our Swallows 

 and other summer migrants. An Italian 

 peasant has much more excuse for kilHng 

 a nightingale or a garden warbler to eat 

 than an English woman of fashion has for 

 buying a dead egret's feathers for the 

 ■decoration of her head." — Times, March 8. 



' ' We thoroughly endorse everything said 

 by Lord Curzon." — Globe, March 7. 



' ' Lord Curzon's speech on the preserving 

 — or rather on the destroying — and on the 

 imprisoning of wild birds was full of a noble 

 impatience. The robbers and assassins of 

 wild birds all over the world are active as 

 ever." — Saturday Review, March 8. 



"It is a little startUng to hear from Sir 

 Harry Johnston, but is none the less true, 

 that Lord Kitchener has done a distinct 

 service to Lancashire working-men by pro- 

 hibiting the slaughter of insect-eating birds 

 that haunt Egjrptian cotton fields. The 

 tsetse fly, again, which causes such infinite 



loss to cattle owners in Africa, is the natural 

 food of the beautiful egret." — Evening 

 Standard, March 7. 



" Lord Curzon, in making an eloquent 

 appeal against the destruction of bird life 

 caused by the demands of miUinery, instanced 

 some facts and figures which give one 

 ' furiously to think '." — Qiceen, March 15. 



" Lord Curzon's indictment of the traffic 

 in bird life will surely not fall on deaf 

 ears." — Leicester Mail, March 7. 



" Lord Curzon's vigorous indictment of 

 the trade in birds' feathers and skins will be 

 warmly endorsed by all humane people." — 

 Nottingham Evenirg Post, March 7. 



" If hard words could put an end to a 

 scandalous trade, we should hear Httle more 

 of the cruelties involved in obtaining plumage 

 for woman's hats after the scathing speech 

 which Lord Curzon made. His Lordship 

 described the traffic as wanton, nefarious, 

 wicked, abominable, appaUing, and inhuman. 

 Not one of these epithets is too strong. . . . 

 There seems to be nothing for it but to resort 

 to legislative measures against the impor- 

 tation of plumage." — Diirdee Advertiser, 

 March 7. 



It is profosed to print Lord Curzoii's speech 

 as a leaflet. 



