14 



Bird Notes and News 



From Correspondents 



Eaely Swallows 



" It may interest you to know that three 

 Swallows were seen at Euston, the next parish 

 to this, yesterday morning (March 6th). They 

 were flying in and out of buildings where they 

 nested last year. This is the earliest date I 

 have in 35 years' observation." — Rev. R. B. 

 Gaton, Great Fakenham Rectory, Norfolk. 



The " Pick-Cheese " 



" I have to-day heard from one of the Local 

 Examiners of the essays for the Bird and 

 Tree Scheme. He remarks upon one report 

 in which it was stated that the nick-name 

 ' Pick-cheese ' for the Blue-Tit was new to 

 the Examiners. He furnishes an explanation, 

 and I am forwarding it to you as a morsel of 

 interesting information. He says the soubri- 

 quet was probably earned by the bird getting 

 through the window (latticed to escape window 

 tax) of the cheese room and pecking at the 

 drying cheeses." — J. S. Davis, Secretary, 

 Norfolk Education Committee. 



Bird Protection Posters 



" If all your subscribers would write to 

 Councils, Boards, etc., I feel sure something 

 would be done to make Bird Protection notices 

 clearer in type and posted where they can be 

 seen and read. They are often too high up to be 

 legible. ' Wordy ' wording might be left 

 out in order that the names of protected birds 

 and important points should be larger. 

 Private owners of the land often have to do 

 with the placing of the posters." — H. C. Ford, 

 Yealand Conyers. 



The War on the Hedgerows 



" Last year I came across a man cutting 

 down a high hawthorn hedge in the height of 

 the birds' breeding season. The hedge was 

 overgrown, but was not as a matter of fact 

 causing any danger to the motoring public. 

 ' You must be destroying a good many birds' 

 nests.' He replied that he was sorry to say 

 he was doing so, nests of mavises, etc., with 

 young birds in them, and that he ought not to 



have been put on to cut down the hedge at that 

 time of the year (June) ; but that it wasn't his 

 fault as he was ordered to do so by the farmer, 

 who in his turn was ordered by the Road 

 Board or County Council. The man tried to 

 save some of the young birds by putting the 

 nests back in the fallen stuff. 



" I then wrote or spoke to two or three 

 gentlemen who had seats upon, or influence 

 with, the County Council. I got no satisfaction 

 from them. They admitted that it was illegal 

 to destroy the birds, but excused it on the 

 plea that it was an ' agricultural necessity ' 

 to cut down the hedge, and that the farmers 

 would say they had no other time for doing it. 



" Is not this positively monstrous and 

 ridiculous ? They have all the year to choose 

 from, and they leave the hedge-cutting (in 

 some cases) till the very height of the breeding 

 season. I really think the present law ought 

 to be made to cover such cases. What hap- 

 pened where I saw it may happen anywhere." — 

 Rev. H. Northcote. 



GAME AND "VERMIN" 



A well-known officer and landowner writes 

 to a member of the R.S.P.B. Council : — 



" I wish something could be done to protect 

 some of those birds that the more ignorant 

 class of gamekeeper, and alas ! their masters, 

 call ' Vermin ' birds, which are not only 

 harmless but actually do good to the game 

 by reducing their mutual enemies, such as 

 rats, etc., that eat any quantity of pheasant 

 food. My own opinion is that the damage 

 done by many species of so-called vermin is 

 really very small. Anyone who has been in 

 India must have seen the extraordinary amount 

 of game, not only migratory, such as Snipe, 

 but actually breeding in the Plains, and yet 

 the place swarms with what the average 

 keeper would call vermin, and if their arguments 

 have any logic in them, all game would have 

 been annihilated long ago. 



" A Sparrowhawk in the vicinity of a 

 pheasant-rearing establishment is, I fear, 

 indefensible. But Kestrels, Owls, Buzzards, 

 Merlins, etc., do practically no harm and are 

 a delight to the bird-lover." 



