Bird Notes and News 



43 



services of men not only thoroughly trust- 

 worthy and honourable, but keenly in- 

 terested in the welfare of the birds and 

 personally as anxious as the Committee to 

 ensure their safety. The visits of members 

 of the Committee are looked forward to 

 and valued as opportunities to show some- 

 thing of what has been done and to demon- 

 strate the good results of vigilance. Whether 

 on the stony beach of Dungeness or the 

 coloured sands of Alum Bay ; by the white 

 ehfifs of Albion at Beachy Head or the 

 towering heights of King Arthur's Castle in 

 Cornwall, or the mountains and moors of 

 the Lake country ; far away among the 

 mists of Britain's outposts in the wild 

 Atlantic, or on the last of the Mendip spurs 

 that looks across from Somerset to New- 

 foundland ; as far west as the shores of 

 Anglesey, or as far east as the Aberdeenshire 

 coast, the Watchers have worked with one 

 mind for the preservation of the Birds and 

 in loyal support of the Society's efforts. 



It is earnestly hoped that not one of 

 these Watchers will have to be told that 

 his services must be dispensed with because 

 funds are no longer forthcoming. It is 

 true that even if unpaid many of them would 

 continue to do their best. " You can 

 depend upon it that I will look after the 

 birds as long as I am alive and am able," 

 writes one. " After so many years it would 

 be a great pity if this good work should fall 

 through," says another ; " I shall always 

 feel it my duty to do something for the 

 birds." But this very readiness will in itself 

 appeal for a continuance of the work without 

 interruption. It is of course only part-time 

 work in a part of the year. Keeper or 

 boatman, or fisherman, or shepherd, or 

 quarryman, or whatever their daily occupa- 

 tion, they are ineligible for mihtary service, 

 and have in several cases suffered seriously 



through loss of employment because of the 

 War, which has kept away tourists, closed 

 quarries, and jeopardised fishing. 



It is a point to be remembered also that 

 the protection of rare birds is not a thing 

 that can be laid down and subsequently 

 picked up at the same point. Remove the 

 guard, and their numbers will again decline, 

 possibly beyond recovery ; for all are con- 

 tending against unfavourable conditions, 

 and the collector (the chief est of the.se " con- 

 ditions ") is ready to step in wherever a 

 breach is left. 



One or two stories from the Watching- 

 grounds have been told to subscribers to 

 the R.S.B.P., and they may like to add 

 another line to these bird-biographies. An 

 account of the Ravens of the Isle of Wight 

 was given at the Society's Annual Meeting. 

 They have bred this year in the historic old 

 haunt of their kind at Freshwater, and the 

 male bird became so tame that while the 

 hen was on her nest he would come to the 

 Watcher for food. The history of the last 

 of the White-tailed Eagles of Shetland has 

 also been given — how the male bird was 

 killed some years ago, and the old female 

 has returned year in, year out, to the old 

 nest each spring, to gaze out over the wide 

 horizon, and wait. In the spring of 1916 

 she was still alive and at her post, " just 

 hanging about the old place as usual," 

 solitary for the rest of her days. Known 

 friends again are the Richardson Skuas 

 that would come about the hut of a Watcher 

 in the northern " land's-end," to be fed. 

 This year the same pair were back in May, 

 " and as soon as they saw the door of the 

 hut open they came up for their usual food." 



There can be little doubt that the ^^"atch- 

 ing, in addition to preservation of disappear- 

 ing species, does much to promote that 

 feeling for Bird-hfe at which all Bird 



