Bird Notes and News 



29 



cases on their merits, and do not shoot 

 every bird that flies simply because they 

 think it may do harm to game. A word 

 from his employer will often help a man to 

 think and to act in a more sensible manner ; 

 and game-preservers should remember that 

 the}' have friends as well as enemies among 

 the birds too commonly classed as vermin, 

 and that a too zealous keeper may do more 

 harm than good in destroying wholesale. 

 Quite apart from this aspect of the matter, 

 surely any man who calls himself a true 

 sportsman and wishes to live up to that 

 ideal, can understand the meaning of " live 

 and let live " in a matter of this sort. And 

 surely, too, there is an added pleasmre to 

 every shooting expedition and to every- 

 walk around one's property when something 

 besides game is to be seen. Are there not 

 some of us, fonder perhaps of shooting than 

 of hunting, j^et who like to see a fox some- 



times when we are out for Pheasants, and 

 in the same way is it not rather pleasing 

 when one is waiting for the beaters to coiue 

 up, to watch a company of Jays holding 

 high revelry in the tree-tops or a Kestrel 

 hovering gracefully over an adjoining field 

 ere he stoops to earth like a flash of lightning 

 to gather up some living morsel that his 

 wonderful eye has discerned from two 

 himdred yards above ? One of the most 

 beautiful things I ever witnessed was a 

 Hawk swooping from an immense height 

 at a small bird, which, incidentally, he 

 missed by a matter of inches. No man 

 in this country is more keen on shooting 

 than I am, but for the sake of that sight I 

 would have let go by the best cock -Pheasant 

 that ever flew. And yet, I suppose, there 

 are not a few whose first thought on seeuig 

 that brave bird swooping from the sky 

 would have been to shoot it ! 



irds in the War Area. 



Me. F. GoodyeaPv, R.E., ^\Tites from France 

 (July 8th) :— 



I am much interested in yoiu! article in 

 the Summer Number on Birds in the War 

 Area. The article in the Times of June 7th 

 I had seen and, though that referred to a 

 beech wood, I foimd that it mentioned almost 

 exactly the same lot of birds as I had seen 

 in a poplar wood. It struck me that the 

 large anonymous Hawk was surely a Pere- 

 grine. Golden Orioles were quite new to 

 me, and they have impressed me with their 

 tropical habits — ^the ehisiveness of their call, 

 its mellowness, their amazingly brilliant 

 flight, high up from tree to tree — ^tliey seem 

 made for the deep shadows of a far sunnier 

 land than Flanders diu-ing these last few 

 weeks. I find that the bright colour of the 

 male is not without protective value when 

 brilliant sunshine falls through a broken 

 canopy of leaves. As for the Nightingales, 



during May I lived in a chateau where about 

 six pairs were nestmg in the grounds. One 

 was frequently singing within a few feet of 

 our window : and I seldom vv'ent in or out 

 without catching glimpses of their chestnut 

 tails as they whisked into a clump of bushes 

 or the lower boughs of a tree. They were 

 a perpetual delight. 



The number and variety of the Warblers 

 has also been noteworthy. And I first made 

 the acquaintance of the Great Reed Warbler 

 out here. 



Referring to ]\'Ir. Waldegrave Little's letter, 

 I know of a regular haunt of Willow- Wrens 

 in a wooded marsh. One was there as early 

 as March 29th. But I do not think he staj^ed : 

 the present occupiers appeared ten days or 

 a fortnight later. When he says he can't 

 identify the " Oriol-ole," I think he's joking. 

 His syllabization of the note gives the show 

 away : though it is not the size of a Cuckoo, 

 of course. The first time I heard the Oriole, 



