Bird Notes and News 



69 



In tlie make-up the body is covered with 

 silver or gold tinsel, with " butts " and 

 sometimes half the body wrapped with 

 mohair of the master-colour of the pattern. 



This it is evident that not a single bird's 

 feather need be used. In some I have used a 

 bit of ostrich or a v^hite-spot feather of the 

 jungle-cock, to satisfy man's fancy, but I 

 have caught as many fish on the flies made 

 only of gut and mohair. 



In so compressed an article it is impossible 

 to go fully into details, but the actual flies 

 can be inspected or bought at Messrs. Little's 

 in the Hayiuarket. 



One thing certain is that the new gut-flies 

 kill salmon as successfully as any of the 

 expensive feather-built flies, and therefore, 

 so far as my experience goes, there is no need 

 for fishermen to use any rare birds' feathers, 

 or indeed any feathers at all. 



Notes. 



The provision made in gallant Lord 

 Lucas's will for the upkeep of thp bird- 

 sanctuary in Norfolk in whjch he took so 

 much interest, has drawn from Sapper 

 Vincent, R.E., formerly his head-keeper, 

 some stories that illustrate the freshness 

 of delight afforded by wild nature to men in 

 the hurly-burly of pohtical or mihtary 

 careers. Many members of the R.S.P.B. 

 recollect Viscount Grey's memorable remark, 

 made years ago at one of the Annual Meetings 

 of the Society, that the love of birds and the 

 pleasure of seeing and listening to them " is 

 in the long run a happier thing than personal 

 success." In a letter to the Society on the 

 subject of Bird-Protection in Malta, Field- 

 Marshal Lord Methuen speaks of flowers 

 and birds as " the two happiest companions 

 given us to live amongst." Lord Lucas 

 paid his last visit to Norfolk in the summer 

 of 1915, to see the Marsh Harriers which — 

 driven out of England by keeper and col- 

 lector, and absent from their last stronghold 

 on the Norfolk Broads for some f ortj^ years — 

 were at last breeding again in the sanctuary 

 on the Whiteslea estate. He \asited the 

 nest, saw the eggs, and watched the birds 

 flying, with cries of protest, above their 

 home. " What a sight ! " was Lord Lucas's 

 delightful comment ; " this is probably the 

 only pair breeding in the British Isles. Jim, 

 this is the next great thing to the icar." 

 * * * 



One of the daily papers, apparently at a 

 loss how to fill its columns, reports that 

 certain German prisoners are " happy in 

 their captivity " and so " fond of birds and 

 animals " that they have gone in for, 

 keeping rabbits to give variety to their menu 

 and have a number of caged Robins in their 



camp. This is precisely the way in which 

 Germans might be expected to exhibit their 

 " fondness " ; but why they should be per- 

 mitted by the authorities to further outrage 

 a heaven they have sufficiently'^ offended, by 

 keeping EngUsh Robins in captivity is more 

 than the normal EngHshmen can understand. 

 * * * 



Two forms of " cage " for wild birds in 

 contrast to the few miserable inches given 

 to the solitary prisoner of the Huns and of 

 their British confreres, are brought to notice 

 by French and Swiss writers. The first of 

 these is the proposition made in the new 

 work " Les Jardins VoHeres." of which Miss 

 de la Rive writes in another column. The 

 second is the great public aviary which is 

 to be estabhshed (according to L'Ami des 

 Aniinaux) at Neuchatel for the reception 

 of caged birds Avhich their owners wish for 

 any reason to be rid of or to free. Native 

 species are to be accustomed to ample flying 

 space and to be liberated at the most pro- 

 pitious season ; foreign species, which it is 

 supposed would not flourish in freedom, are 

 to be housed as in the great aviaries in the 

 Zoological Gardens of London and New 

 York. Mr. Hudson has shown, in one of 

 the R.S.P.B. leaflets, that the old stories 

 about liberated birds djdng of starvation 

 because they cannot find food, or being 

 pecked to death by their wild brethren, are 

 fictitious ; and London parks have donmn- 

 strated that even escaped parrot and canary 

 can maintain themselves ; but the Neucliatel 

 scheme forms at least a pleasing variet'*' on 

 the pubhc aviary as it is too often exi'-ts in 

 English municipal parks. 



