82 



Bird Notes and News 



magazines and in other ways ; and to many 

 friends of the Society who have given 

 sympathy and practical help in the effort. 



" Birds, Insects and Crops." 



It will be obvious that the expenses of 

 this attempt to save not only the country's 

 birds but the food of the people, is an 

 expensive one, entailing heavy outlay in 

 printing at a time when paper and labour 

 are at a high figure, and in postages. The 

 leaflet, which is supplied free, is now in its 

 third impression and its 100th thousand ; 

 and the demand cannot be said to have 

 greatly decreased nor, it is to be hoj)ed, 

 will it cease so long as the need for informa- 

 tion continues. In gratefully acknowledging 

 therefore the kind donations, big and little, 

 of those who have contributed to the Leaflet 

 Fund, the Council trust that further help 

 both in money and in the work of distribution 

 will be received from those who appreciate 

 our feathered allies and their National 

 Service on the Land. 



Questions in the House. 



In the House of Commons, on April 25th, 

 Sir R. Winfrej^ in reply to Mr. Chancellor, 

 said the loss of food owing to the depreda- 

 tions of sparrows was so serious that the 

 Board had urged the formation of sjiarrow- 

 clubs throughout the country ; but they 

 had advised that schoolchildren should not 

 be employed on the destruction of sparrows 

 except under the supervision of their school 

 teachers. The Board had no reason to fear 

 that demoralization to any children working 

 under their teachers would ensue in helping 

 to get rid of the large excess of sparrows. 



Sir J. Tudor Walters : Is this intended 

 to be a joke ? — Sir R. Winfrey : Oh, I am 

 quite serious. 



Sir H. Craik : Is the subject recognized 

 by the Code ? 



Mr. Chancellor : Will there be any great 

 saving by the destruction of sparrows in 

 view of the multiplication of insects on 

 which they feed ? — Sir R. Winfrey : I think 



scientific opinion shows that sparrows do 

 more harm than good. 



On May 7th, in reply to Sir George 

 Greenwood, the President of the Board of 

 Education stated that the paragraph in the 

 Board of Agriculture's Memorandum relating 

 to the killing of sparrows by schoolchildren 

 was intended to secure that children whose 

 natural proclivities might incline them to 

 take part in the destruction of sparrows 

 did not do so except under competent super- 

 vision. This was not school work to be 

 done in school hours. 



Mr. Chancellor : Will the right hon. 

 gentleman see that school teachers are not 

 allowed to instruct children to destroy life ? 

 — Mr. Fisher : The educational value 

 attached to the decapitation of sparrows 

 does not, in the mind of the Board of 

 Education, possess any positive value, and 

 accordingly I shall not instruct its inclusion 

 in the curriculum of elementary schools. 



Hampshire Field Club. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Hampshire 

 Field Club and Archaeological Society, on 

 May 14th, Sir William Portal, Bart., F.S.A. 

 (past-president), said he hoped the Members 

 of the Club would support those who were 

 endeavouring to arrest the reckless way in 

 which the destruction of small birds was 

 being carried on. House-sparrows w^ere 

 mischievous, and if they could be diminished 

 in some safe way he and others would be 

 glad ; but it was not a safe way for school 

 children to be told to go out and destroy 

 sparrows, and there would be terrible 

 destruction if all over the country children 

 were to go about pulling down all the nests 

 they could find. When, too, an influential 

 paper said the simplest way to destroy 

 sparrows was to provide poisoned grain 

 he thought it was time protest was made. 

 Not only the house-sparrow, but countless 

 other small birds would be poisoned. 



A resolution, moved by Miss Minns, and 

 seconded by Dr. Williams-Freeman, ex- 

 pressing the Club's sympathy with the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 

 its efforts to oppose the wholesale destruction 

 of insect-eating birds, was unanimously 

 agreed to. 



