Bird Notes and News 



85 



though rooks and their brethren and the 

 smaller inseet-eat'ng birds have been deci- 

 mated " by order," need the market-gardener 

 fear ? A writer in the Times cheers him 

 with the thought that he can buy nice 

 little cardboard discs to fix neatly round 

 the collar of each cabbage, can walk up and 

 down his rows of turnip, waving tar-covered 

 bags to which the flies will obhgingly stick, 

 and can gently uproot small plants, remove 

 the maggots, and replant them in clean 

 ground. These sound idyllic occupations 

 for a superabundance of farm-hands wanting 

 work. 



All over the country, testimony has been 

 borne to the effect of the long hard winter 

 upon bird-life. Thrushes and other insect- 

 eating birds of course suffered most ; while 

 Lapwings were picked uj) in so emaciated a 

 state that they were sold in the London 

 markets at 2d. and 3d. each, and the poor 

 little skeletons were dear at the price. 

 Redwings, Blackbirds, Fieldfares perished 

 in great numbers ever^^where. At a meeting 

 of the British Ornithologists Union, IVIr. 

 Carruthers Gould spoke of picking up a dead 

 Heron, and flushing a Greater Spotted 

 Woodpecker from a half -frozen ditch where 

 it was sheltering ; and Mr. H. B. Booth 

 told how Thrushes, Larks, and Pipits fled 

 from the Yorkshire dales before the sharpest 

 frosts, having apparently some fore-know- 

 ledge of the weather. 



* * * 



Wild birds urgently need water in hot 

 dry weather, and the Food Controller has 

 not yet started fining humane persons for 

 suppl}dng this. A dish, flower-pot saucer, 

 or ornamental trough or bird -fountain, 

 should be in every garden. Empty tin 

 crosses and other receptacles might well be 

 utilised in churchyards and cemeteries. 

 One correspondent ^vrites that he has 

 planted rows of the good old sunflower in 

 order to provide bird-food next winter ; 

 another would remind readers that food 

 odds-and-ends, plate and saucepan scrapings, 

 etc., should be collected in a kitchen jar 

 and bestowed on the birds ; it is better 

 than blocking the drains, and a member of 

 the household overseeing the business might 

 take the honoured Wj^kehamist title of 

 " Prefect of Tub." 



The doom of the grey North American 

 squirrel has been pronounced by Sir Frederick 

 Treves in the Observer, backed by Sir Harry 

 Johnston in the Weekly Despatch, and also 

 by Mr. W. H Hudson in the Devon and 

 Exeter Gazette. It is undoubtedly an 

 attractive little creature to the multitude 

 o^ving to its tameness, and when first liber- 

 ated in London parks it became a speedy 

 favourite. But imhappily it soon spread 

 to places like Kew Gardens and Richmond 

 Park where our fascinating native red 

 squirrel has its rightful home, and the small 

 native disappeared before the bigger and 

 stronger alien. " Where he establishes him- 

 self," wTites Mr. Hudson, who found the 

 grey species liberated in the Rougemont 

 Gardens at Exeter, " he exterminates the 

 small wild bird life in the woods and hedges, 

 as he greedily devours the eggs and fledglings 

 and tears down the nests " " It may be a 

 pretty thing to see him taking pea-nuts from 

 the hands of little children/' adds Mr 

 Hudson ; and it may be amusing to see him 

 chase off the robins that (in spite of Lord 

 Devonport) try for their expected share of 

 visitors' crumbs in the Park ; but his mis- 

 demeanours among bird and plant Hfe, as 

 well as his mastery of his daintier cousin, 

 have brought upon him notice to quit. 



^ 4: 4: 



A grievous loss has befallen the Society 

 in the tragic death of ]Mr. Jesse HaAvkings 

 of Brean Down Farm, from whom were 

 rented the shooting rights of the Down and 

 who acted as chief Watcher of that most 

 interesting sanctuary. Mr. Haw^kings, one 

 of the finest representatives of the British 

 farmer, alike in physique, in expert and 

 general knowledge, and in genial courtesy, 

 was a member of various agriculture and 

 other bodies, and was known and respected 

 throughout Somerset. He was killed on 

 June 10th by one of his own bulls, a pedigree 

 beast recently bought from Lord Rothschild's 

 stock. The animal has since been shot. 

 IVIr. Hawkings' two eldest sons, both of 

 whom had assisted in w^atching and pro- 

 tecting the birds of the Down, are in the 

 Army. The most friendly feeling has sub- 

 sisted between the Council of the Society 

 and the occupants of Brean Down Farm, 

 and every \dsitor to the reserve will grieve 

 to hear of the terrible occurrence. 



