92 



Bird Notes and News 



Christmas cards, " Peace and goodwill to 

 the Birds," he appealed to women on 

 behalf of the murdered plumage-birds : 



I heard the Skylark's heavenward note, 



The Throstle greet the day. 

 And watched the white Gulls wheel and 



About the glittering bay ; [float 



The Kinglet flicker round the rose, 



The Woodpecker alight 

 A moment w^here the woodbine blows, 



Then ripple out of sight. 



And then another scene 1 saw, 



Crushed plumage, crimson streak. 

 The shattered wmg, the crippled claw, 



Mute breast and drooping beak ; 

 And, round the havoc, creatures fair, 



Not sad, but eager now 

 With the dead spoil to crown their hair, 



And decorate their brow. 



Dear English maiden, English wife, 



Nurtured in bliss and ease, 

 The selfsame heaven that lent you life 



Gave life no less to these. 

 O let the Tern still guard the nest 



By tenderness begun, 

 And Egret plume and Goura crest 



Gleam, sacred, in the sun ! 



Lord Avebury, though not officially 

 connected with the Society, will be held 

 in grateful remembrance by its members 

 for his pilotage of the Importation of 

 Plumage Bill in 1908. The Bill, it may 

 be remembered resulted from a conference 

 of representatives of the Royal Society, 

 Linnean Society, Zoological Society, Sel- 

 borne Society, and Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, was framed by the 

 last-named, and passed through the House 

 of Lords, considerably strengthened by 

 amendments introduced after the sitting 

 of a Select Committee which heard 

 evidence on both sides. Punch's cartoon 

 pourtraying Lord Avebury as " A Modern 

 St. Francis," was reproduced, by per- 

 mission, in Bird Notes and News, Summer 

 Number, 1908. 



The Society has also to regret the loss 

 of Mr. R. H. Watt, for many years Hon. 

 Local Secretary for Knutsford. A keen 

 lover of birds, Mr. Watt was the guardian 

 of a " sanctuary moor " of four or five 

 acres which he kept entirely secluded from 

 all enemies ; and he also devised a 

 dehghtful idea of adapting the scaffolding 

 holes of houses he built in Knutsford, as 

 nesting-places for birds. 



Dr. Robert Hawthorne, of Poona, a 

 valued Life Member of the Society, did 

 especially good work in aiding the detec- 

 tion of smuggHng carried on in the 

 interests of the plume-trade, after the 

 enactment of the Indian law of 1902. 



BIRD PROTECTION AND THE 

 COLLECTOR. 



The injury inflicted on the rarer bird- 

 life of Britain by the collector has recently 

 claimed attention in the Times, Nature, 

 and the Spectator. The Secretary of the 

 R.S.P.B. writes in the Times (May 3rd) : 



The problem lies in this, that the offenders 

 are largely men of wealth and position, 

 officers in the Army, clergymen, ' ornitho- 

 logists ' popularly kno\A'n for their interest 

 in bird life and even for their pronounce- 

 ments in print on bird-protection, and that 

 these collectors not only snap their fingers 

 at the la\^^ and take pride in evading and 

 transgressing its provisions, but employ 

 trade agents and dealers to work for them 

 and give heavy bribes to poorer men — men 

 in the responsible position of keepers and 

 coastguards, and also fishermen, shepherds, 

 and others whose ignorance and poverty 

 render them ready catspaws. 



" It is, as ' Nemo ' says, useless to suppose 

 that the creation of reserves will in itself 

 check unscrupulous collecting. For some 

 years this society has, ^^dth the best results, 

 employed watchers to guard certain breeding- 

 places of rare birds. Some score of these 

 are scattered over Great Britain, from the 

 Shetlands and Orkneys to Sussex and 

 Cornwall, and more will be employed as 

 funds permit : but the utmost care has to 

 be exercised in their appointment ; they 



