Bird Notes and News 



93 



Jackdaws sitting amicably on the same 

 roof. The birds are astonishingly tame. 

 Though most of the houses are only one 

 storey and so low that, sitting on my horse, 

 my head may reach above the eaves, the 

 birds will allow me to watch them from a 

 distance of only a few yards. The number of 

 Kestrels is surprising. It is common to see 

 ten or a dozen pairs in one village. Their 

 ways are most interesting. At evening time 

 they seem to play in the air before they roost. 

 Then yoii may see fifteen or twenty or even 

 more circlmg about together, rising to great 

 heights and wheeling round and round as if 

 in a dance. Then one or more will swoop 

 down at great speed : a most beautiful and 

 graceful descent. Some after this descend, 

 alight on tree or house toj), and remain ; 

 others rapidlj^ reascend and join again in the 

 whirling throng, 



" At mid-day it is common to see the 

 Kestrels haAvking over villages with a great 



oompany of other birds ; swallows, starlings,. 

 and jackdaws. It is probable they are 

 pursuing insects, for they double and twist 

 and rise and fall and grab with their claws, 

 and often transfer something to their beaks 

 from their claws by bending do\vn the head 

 as they fly. I often see these little hawks 

 eating lizards and mice, but I have never 

 seen one take a bird. I notice that the small 

 birds do not regard them with fear. . . . 



" During a visit to Salonika in the last 

 days of March I was interested to see flocks 

 of Gulls (I think the common Blacldieaded 

 Gull) apparently pursuing and catohing 

 insects in the air above the flat lands by the 

 Monastir road. The movements and motions 

 of the birds were similar to those of swallows 

 hawking over English meadows. It ie 

 curious that in this country such birds as 

 Seagulls, Hawks, and Crows should hawk 

 insects in the air, and so far as I can make out 

 it is often quite a small insect they pursue." 



Economic Ornithology. 



THE CATERPILLAR PLAGUE. 



The Journal of the Board of Agriculture 

 for August, 1917, contains reports on the 

 remarkable plague of caterpillars of the 

 Antler-moth in the Peak District and in 

 Yorkshire, last June. It seems probable, 

 says ]Mr. John Snell, one of the Board's 

 Inspectors, that the caterpillars occurred 

 on practically all the mountain pasture- 

 land from Derbyshire to Westmorland ; 

 and in their migrations they travelled at 

 the rate of 18 in. to 2 ft. per minute. Walls 

 and streams, however, acted as barriers 

 and traps. 



" In the pools of one small stream there 

 were larvafc lying m masses from 6 in. to 

 9 m. deep. These were decaying and the 

 stench was very noticeable. In fact, all 

 the small streams intersectmg the invaded 

 pastures were covered with a green slime 

 due to the decay of large numbers of 

 caterpillars which had been drowned." 



Happily the lower and richer pastures 

 escaped, but the damage to upland grass 

 areas " was very severe, and bare, brown 

 hillsides were characteristic features in the 



infested part." The maldng of trenches as 

 traps and the use of lead arsenite spray 

 are suggested. Messrs. A. C. Cole, B.A. 

 (Board of Agriculture) and A. D. Imms,D.Sc., 

 Reader in Agricultural Entomology, Man- 

 chester University, who contribute the 

 report on the Peak District, add — 



" It appears that aU the natural conditions 

 of the past season have been advantageous 

 to the pest. There is definite evidence 

 from several sources that the Plover has 

 been exceptionally scarce. Starlings have 

 likeAvise been less abundant. The exception- 

 ally severe weather has, in aU probability, 

 caused a certain reduction of birdlife in 

 general. Even when the snow had dis- 

 appeared, the ground was so frozen that 

 the reduced flocks of birds could not gain 

 access to them. The absence of intermittent 

 mild spells, when birds make considerable 

 inroads on insect life, was characteristic 

 of the past winter. . . . 



" Greater discrimination should be exer- 

 cised in the preservation of birdlife in these 

 parts. As regards the control of this 



