Bird Notes and News 



19 



to poison streams and breed disease. 

 Science never fails when destruction of 

 life is aimed at. Science is not likely 

 to prove incompetent to deal with a new 

 need and a simpler destruction ; though 

 a world-wide campaign to save our sea- 

 birds may lie before us. 



A few extracts are appended from the 

 Society's correspondence and from news- 

 papers. 



Sea Birds and Oil 



From Kent : 



" I have lately been walking along the shores 

 from Rye and Dungeness, and it is pitiful to 

 see the scores of birds which, with feathers 

 clogged and matted by this abominable refuse, 

 are quite unable to use their wings, and perish 

 in miserable fashion. These wretched creatures 

 struggle to land and sit on the beach vainly 

 attempting to clean their plumage, and for 

 miles you may see Guillemots, Puffins, Razor- 

 bills, Gulls, and Scoters in this hopeless pHght, 

 while their dead and blackened bodies are only 

 too clear evidence of their fate. 



" Is it not possible to make it compulsory for 

 steamers which are cleaned and overhauled in 

 port to discharge this refuse also before leaving, 

 not, of course, into the harbour waters, but 

 into tanks from which it can be removed and 

 burnt ? Unless some regulation is made which 

 shall stop this discharge of oil-waste along the 

 coast, it is certain that such of these sea-going 

 birds as survive will desert the Channel for 

 less deadly waters. It is impossible until one 

 has seen the horrible mortahty among them 

 owing to this cause, to form any idea of how 

 extensive it is. 



" We are supposed to be a humane people 

 who hate limed twigs and torturing traps, and 

 it is a disgrace that we should suffer our birds 

 to perish by this lingering death." — Mr. E. F. 

 Benson, in the Times (May 23rd, 1922). 



Mr. Benson's evidence is fully substantiated 

 by the Watchers and the members of the 

 Watchers Committee of the R.S.P.B. 



" Here at Deal, Guillemots and Razorbills 

 have died by the hundred. They come on to 

 the beach perhaps to try and clean the black 

 grease ofi their feathers. I have found them 

 so weak that they could not move away, and 

 hterally covered with the stuff."—" T. G. W.," 

 Deal (January 1st, 1922). 



From Sussex : 



" Can nothing be done to stop the reckless 

 emptying of the refuse of steamers' oil tanks 

 into the sea round our coast ? At the present 

 time it is destroying thousands of our sea- 

 birds, especially diving birds and sea-ducks. 

 My wife and I have just had the enjoyment of 

 pleasant weather at the seaside spoilt by the 

 sight of wretched Guillemots coming ashore at 

 St. Leonards. One of them, almost imploring 

 man's help, had made its way into a crowd of 

 sightseers, and was trying in vain, by combing 

 its feathers with its beak and flapping its wings, 

 to rid itself of the sticky horror. But nothing 

 seems to save these birds. Their down, which 

 keeps the body dry, is matted with the greasy 

 stuff. Water finds its way to the skin and 

 they slowly die of cold, unless boys stone them 

 or dogs kill them and so put them out of their 

 misery." — "F. D. D.," in the Spectator (May 

 20th, 1922). 



" Almost daily. Guillemots, Razorbills, and 

 occasionally Scoter Ducks, are to be seen on 

 the beach with their breast feathers matted 

 together with thick, dirty, oily matter. These 

 birds are brought to a state of starvation, as 

 they are unable to feed. — "A. N. S.," East- 

 bourne (April 3rd, 1922). 



From Hampshire : 



" Where the ooast is tamer and shipping 

 comes close to land many hundreds of sea- 

 birds are being slaughtered, and yet more will 

 be. They are being killed, as the fish are being 

 killed, from oil and oil waste. A powerful bird 

 will die of a httle oil on his feathers ; and the 

 modern ship, without regard to any decency, 

 spews out in volume the filthiest oil till it 

 covers the harboiu". One of the worst places 

 is Southampton Water ; but the nuisance is 

 slowly becoming general wherever steamships 

 assemble. The oil both poisons and clogs. 

 It fouls the sea and the beach by the edge of 

 the sea, to the disgust of seaside dwellers and 

 the death of seaside birds. Some regulation 

 has become necessary." — " B. T.," in the 

 Observer (June 5th, 1921). 



From Cornwall : 



" I have constantly during the past winter 

 found birds on this North Cornish coast satur- 

 ated with oil, and it has been pitiable to see 

 them on the beach in their helpless state." 

 —"A. W.," Bude (March 17th, 1922). 



" I have caught many birds in summer with 

 feathers a mass of oil. Recent issues of the 



