Bird Notes and News 



101 



friendship was with him a thing to be desired. 

 A sentence in Walden will be echoed by many 

 another nature-lover — 



" I once had a sparrow alight on my 

 shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in 

 a village garden, and I felt that I was more 

 distinguished by that circumstance than I 

 should have been by any epaulet I could have 

 worn." 



Miss Isa Postgate's new booklet, " From 

 God's Furrow " (A. H. Stockwell, Ludgate 

 Hill), is concerned with legends of wild flowers 

 and their message in war-time ; but bird- 

 lovers will claim one of her graceful parables 

 for their owii. It pictures a Robin delving 

 among fallen leaves beneath bare boughs in 

 early spring and revealing in sudden sunshine 

 a cluster of white violets ; and Robm wears 

 a " suit of khaki " with a crimson stain on 

 his breast. The Redbreast as herald of 

 nature's resurrection is a happy companion 

 to the old familiar Redbreast who covered 

 the dead babes with leaves ; but " robin in 

 khaki " is the touch that tells. 

 * * * 



Readers of Bird Notes and Neivs will delight 

 to hear not only that Mr. Thorburn has again 

 painted one of his charming bird -pictures 

 for the Society's Greeting-card, 1917-18, but 

 that the subject this time is khaki-clad Robin. 

 The artist's Robm is " Behind the Lines in 

 France," and stands on the snow-wreathed 

 arm of one of the temporary identification 

 crosses that mark the resting-places of 

 Britain's soldier-sons. 



Lord Eldon has done a double service to 

 the cause of the birds by expressing in the 

 Times his o^ii opinion of their services and 

 by eliciting that of Professor Hopkinson. 

 The Professor was reported to have said m 

 his address to delegates of the British 

 Association that " Rooks and Wood-pigeons 

 should be ruthlessly exterminated." On this 

 Lord Eldon wrote (July 9) — 



" I cannot pretend to have studied the 

 habits of birds as closely as he has, but I 

 believe that almost everji^hing in nature has 

 its uses in this world (except, perhaps, the 

 German), and I believe that the world would 

 be the worse for the extermination of either 



the Rook or the Wood-pigeon. I have myself 

 shot and examined the crop of a Wood-pigeon 

 which contained three grains of barley and 

 70 turnip-grubs (as certified by the Govern- 

 ment expert), with not a morsel of anything 

 else. No doubt the Pigeon, like other birds, 

 will eat grain when exposed, but, unless the 

 turnip-grub is to be classed as a farmer's 

 friend, surely the Wood-pigeon has its uses 

 in the farmer's world ?" 



In answer to Lord Eldon, Professor 

 Hopkinson quotes his words to the delegates 

 as they were spoken and not as they were 

 reported — 



" There are birds, such as the Rook and 

 Wood-pigeon, which should be reduced in 

 number, as they are so destructive to our 

 field and garden crops, but such birds as 

 Hawks and Owls, which are persecuted by 

 gamekeepers, are our farmers' best friends, 

 and their extermination ought not to be 

 allowed." 



He further adds : " These birds might be 

 exterminated, but Rooks and Wood-pigeons 

 camiot be, nor should they or any bird." 



The Board of Agriculture, in " authorizing " 

 the killmg of certain migratory wild birds 

 from August 1 to the next close season 

 (March 1 unless locally varied), is hardly more 

 happy than in its pre\aous intermeddlings 

 with the Bird Protection Acts. A list of the 

 nineteen " authorized " birds includes only 

 one which is protected in wmter-time in 

 as many as four areas. This one is the 

 Redshank, a bird which breeds in no great 

 numbers in marshy districts but is fairly 

 common on the coast in autumn and winter. 

 One other of the nineteen is protected in two 

 areas ; two or three others (the pluraseology 

 is doubtful) in one area onlj% the Isl3 of 

 Wight. The rest have never been protected 

 in the winter season. Was it really necessary 

 in the interests of the national food supply 

 to inform Somerset that it may kill the 

 God wit, if it can ; the Isle of Wight that it 

 may kill the Whimbrel (a bird which usually 

 arrives in May and departs in September) ; 

 and the sportsmen of these islands in general 

 that they have the Board's permission to 

 shoot Woodcock, Snipe, and Wild Duck ?, 



