26 



Bird Notes and News 



rarely or never seen in places Avherc they 

 were once quite common, while other less 

 rare birds, like the Kestrel, the Sparrow- 

 hawk, and Owls of several species, have been 

 greatly reduced in numbers, if not actually 

 exterminated in certain districts. A large 

 part of this destruction — as in the case of 

 the Honey Buzzard, the Owl and the Kestrel 

 — has been brought about through ignorance, 

 for with the more ignorant class of game- 

 keeper it is the rule never to give any bird 

 of prey the benefit of the doubt. 



An old keeper once remarked to me, in 

 reply to a suggestion that he should shew 

 more discrimination where " vermin " were 

 concerned, that he considered it best to 

 '' make siu"e " in every case. " When they 

 be alive," he said, "I don't know what 

 manner of mischief they may be up to, but 

 when they be dead, I knows they can do no 

 harm." Was there ever such a confession 

 of ignorant stupidity and of a lack of that 

 very knowledge which it is a keeper's 

 business to possess ? Another keeper of 

 my acquaintance once shewed me with 

 evident delight, where a Woodpecker's nest 

 had been cut out of a tree, and on my asking 

 him why this achievement gave him so 

 much satisfaction, he assured me that 

 Green Woodpeckers were " mischievous 

 birds." " How do they interfere with you ? " 

 I enquired. " Surely they do no harm to 

 game ? " To which my intelligent friend 

 replied, " Don't they, by Jove ! Just look 

 at their beaks ! " It is only fair to add that 

 this man was a cockney who had taken up 

 game-keeping late in life, but how any 

 game-preserver could be found to employ 

 a person of such ignorance is not easy to 

 Tmderstand. Against the Night-jar, how- 

 ever, it can hardly be urged that its beak 

 betrays its evil habits as a destroyer of 



game, yet one has heard even that unoflfend- 

 ing and useful bird accused of malpractices 

 in this direction ! There are certain people 

 who always seem ready to believe anything 

 bad of birds whose habit it is to prey upon 

 smaller creatvires for their subsistence, and 

 such people seem to take a positive delight 

 in exaggerating to the greatest possible 

 extent these real or imaginary vices. That 

 birds, like human beings and other creatures, 

 do develop vices on occasion no one will 

 deny, but it is a mistake to talk of these 

 backslidings as if they were the general rule, 

 and it is also unfair to dub a natural habit 

 a vice, just because it happens to appear to 

 be one according to the way of thinking of 

 the person concerned. 



A short time ago a letter appeared in the 

 public press suggesting that every Peregrine 

 in the country should be destroyed because 

 Peregrines have been known to take Homing 

 Pigeons on the wing. The argument was 

 that since Pigeons are now being again 

 employed by the War Office for conreying 

 messages, much harm might be done by the 

 intercepting of these useful messengers by 

 birds of prey. The writer was evidently 

 unaware that when an important message 

 is despatched, it is entrusted not to one 

 Pigeon, but to several, and he would have 

 done far more useful work had he used his 

 endeavours to suppress those irresponsible 

 gunners who, being in the habit of shooting 

 everything at sight, account for the destruc- 

 tion of Homing Pigeons and other useful 

 birds in large numbers every year. I 

 heard of a man the other day, who has been 

 in the habit of shooting Homing Pigeons 

 ever since the war broke out, his idea, 

 apparently, being that he might one day 

 intercept some enemy message in this way. 

 It was quite news to him that such a pro- 



