10 



Bird Notes and News 



white-tailed and golden eagles (the former well-nigh 

 extinct in Great Britain), harriers, kestrels, and 

 merlins, as well as buzzards, which are admittedly 

 useful and innocuous, and whose soaring flight is a 

 most picturesque addition to scenery and one which 

 gives immense pleasure to nature-lovers. 



" If we may be allowed to say so, the sight of native 

 a vi -fauna on its own ground is of greater value than 

 is the rigid preservation of grouse, because, whilst 

 grouse shooters are few, nature-lovers are many, and 

 their numbers are increasing the wide world over. " 



THE DESTRUCTION OF LARKS 



" A Bird Lover " writes in the Times 

 (February 25th, 1922) :— 



"No one can pass a poulterer's shop at present 

 without seeing piles of Larks for sale. They are 

 sometimes in boxes, sometimes strung on a string 

 with their throats twisted. In all the stores 

 one meets the same heaps of pathetic little 

 corpses. The Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds has never ceased to protest against 

 the slaughter of the loveliest of all our song 

 birds, but the shopmen always return the same 

 answer, that they must sell them because 

 their customers ask for them. The catching of 

 these birds is attended with great cruelty, and 

 there is not even the excuse of killing them for 

 sport, which the gunmen of Monte Carlo 

 advance. The Bird Society has suggested 

 that if people refused to deal at the shops or 

 the departments of stores where the Larks are 

 sold the slaughter would stop. But I fear that 

 not one customer in a thousand will take the 

 trouble to make a protest. I therefore venture 

 to write to you to suggest that a Bill should be 

 introduced into Parhament forbidding the 

 destruction of Larks. 



" It is indeed time that this were done, for in a 

 walk over Epsom Downs last week I did not 

 hear a single Lark sing, although on a bright 

 day in February I have often heard Larks sing. 

 They have been growing scarcer for many years. 

 I may add that in Germany the destruction 

 of Larks for the table is altogether forbidden." 



To this " A Farmer " made the customary 

 response that Larks are destructive birds and 

 need to be destroyed for that reason. In reply, 

 Dr. W. E. Collinge writes from the Yorkshire 

 Museum {Times, March 7th) : — 



" That ' Larks take a heavy toll of our wheat, 

 seeds, and other growing crops,' is entirely 

 contrary to fact. A long investigation on the 

 food and feeding habits of this bird, made by 

 me some few years ago, and published in the 

 Journal of the Board of Agriculture, shows that 

 the bulk of the food consists of weed seeds and 



injurious insects. Of the total food consumed 

 in a year, animal food forms 46 per cent., and 

 vegetable food 54 per cent. Of the former, 

 35'5 per cent, consists of injurious insects. Of 

 the vegetable food, 43'5 per cent, consists of 

 weed seeds, and only 95 per cent, of grain and 

 1 per cent, of leaves of crops. In other words, 

 505 per cent, of the total food is of a neutral 

 nature, 36"5 per cent, beneficial, and only 13 

 per cent, injurious. The injuries are far out- 

 weighed by the benefits conferred. 



" Respecting the migratory birds arriving 

 in the autumn, no difficulty should be ex- 

 perienced in holding these in check, if they are 

 found to be doing harm. If I thought the 

 Skylark was injurious I should be the first to 

 recommend repressive measures, but it is one 

 of the most beneficial wild birds we have, and 

 should be protected from the bird-catcher and 

 others who are evidently ignorant of its food 

 habits." 



Miss H. E. Lock, Hon. Local Secretary for 

 the R.S.P.B., also writes (March 10th) from 

 Niton, I.W. :— 



" Larks take only a small percentage of grain. 

 They feed chiefly on insects. A young one, 

 which was picked up in May, 1918, with an 

 injured wing, lived entirely on small flies, gnats, 

 and the aphides that go by the name of ' cuckoo- 

 spit ' blight. We exhausted the supply of 

 this blight in our own garden, and had to raid 

 our friends for the bird's benefit." 



PLUMAGE ACT SCHEDULE 



In the House of Commons on April 3rd 

 Mr. Trevelyan Thomson asked the President 

 of the Board of Trade how many orders he 

 had made under the Importation of Plumage 

 (Prohibition) Act ; and, consequently, what 

 were the only feathers that might now be 

 imported into this country. 



Mr. Stanley Baldwin replied that one Order 

 had been made by the Board of Trade and 

 published in the Gazette on March 28th, adding 

 the Rhea Rothschildi to the schedule. At the 

 time of the passing of the Act the schedule 

 included only the African Ostrich and Eider 

 Duck. In addition to these, the only Plumage 

 which can now be imported, except under 

 licence of the Board of Trade, is that of birds 

 ordinarily used in the United Kingdom as 

 articles of diet. 



[The Rhea Rothschildi is usually regarded as a sub- 

 species of the Rhea Americana of South America, but is 

 by some ornithologists held to be a distinct species.] 



