Bird Notes and News 



37 



more melancholy sight for the lover of 

 outdoor life than the municipal aviary, in 

 a corner of the park or the museum, in 

 which a dozen or so finches and buntings 

 " represent " the bird-life of the locality. 

 In a small enclosure, usually more or less 

 in the dark, with dry sticks to hop up and 

 down on, and food and water supplied at 

 regulation hours bj'- an attendant who 

 probably regards them as a nuisance, they 

 are there to be stared at casually by visitors, 

 and to suggest, inter alia, municipal example 

 in catching and caging wild birds. Active 

 cruelty there is probably none, even where 

 cleanliness is doubtful ; but the singular 

 futility of the whole thing is acutely de- 

 pressing. They are not pets, for there is no 

 one to pet them. They serve no purpose 

 of the avicultm'ist. Those who do not care 

 for birds never glance at them ; those who 

 do would certainly rather not see them 

 there. Anj^one wishing to study birds 

 could take a tramcar into the comitry and 

 find them mider natmral conditions. As for 

 instructing the public, a dozen nesting-boxes 

 and food-tables in the park, and its in- 

 telligent management as a Bird Sanctuary, 

 would teach and delight the population 

 more in a year than an aviary full of captives 



could do in all time. 



* * * 



A good many years ago, at a Conference of 



R.S.P.B. workers, Miss Clifton advocated 



the plan of making Bird Sanctuaries of all 



cemeteries. It is interesting to know that 



the idea is being widely adopted in the United 



States ; and a charming leaflet on the 



subject, by ]\Ir. Gilbert Pearson, has been 



issued by the Audubon Association. At 



present Omaha, Neb., claims to possess the 



large t of such sanctuaries. It contains 



320 acres, and fortj^ nesting-boxes and two 



bird-baths have be^^n installed. 



Nesting-boxes appear to afford opportunity 



for investigating the nesting-habits of other 



creatures besides birds. Commenting on 



the note in Bird Notes and News as to bees 



taking possession of boxes, Mi-. R. W. B. 



Ellis sends two similar instances. One of 



these was remarkable. A Great Tit began 



to build in a nesting-box. 



"After a mass of oak catkins, moss, etc.. 

 was collected in the bottom of the box, the 

 first egg was laid before the nest was lined, 

 or even shaped ! On returning some time 

 later I found the ne^^t finished (though rather 

 untidy-looking), but apparently containing 

 no eggs. On investigating further, howevei, 

 I found a lump of bumble-bee cells (con- 

 taining grubs), a bumble-bee, and three 

 Great Tit's eggs right down among the moss, 

 etc., beneath the actual nest. 



" It seemed probable that the Tits had 

 deserted through the bee taking possession 

 of theii nest after the three eggs were laid, 

 for I am certain the bee was not there before 

 at least the first egg had been laid. But, 

 how did the three eggs come to be underneath 

 the nest ? " 



Probably the Tit built on top of the old 



half-made nest and eggs after the bee entered 



upon the scene. Whether it would have 



laid again, and what would have happened 



then, cannot unfortunately be known. 



The Scotsman's " Nature Notes " of 

 August 5th tell of an extraordinary colony 

 of House-Martins in a village near Stratford- 

 on-Avon. Its centre is a labourer's house, 

 commonplace brick and tile, standing alone 

 in a field, near three cattle-ponds. Last 

 year the occupants thought they had more 

 than enough of Martins, and, like many 

 country people, they destroyed all the 

 nests in the hope of discouraging the birds. 

 When the Martins came back and marked 

 the destruction they simply set to work, 

 Briton-like, to "go one better"; and 



