Bird Notes and News 



25 



Gladys Darvell, Mrs. Deakin, Edwin H. Dowler, Miss 

 Dunlop, S. Ellis, Charles Elwell, Ralph W. Flower, 

 Mrs. R. Flower, Miss Dorothea Flower, Reginald H. 

 Fox, Dr. Francis Gayner, Leonard Gill, Mrs. G. W. 

 HiUyard, C. E. Hodgkin, James F. Hosking, G. H. 

 Iggo, MiB. Jebb, Mrs. Jenkinson, Miss E. Jones, 

 Samuel Gilbert Jones, Mrs. T. P. H. Jose, Major 

 Kane, Mrs. L. M. Lamont, Mrs. C. M. Lloyd, Miss 

 N. F. Loch, Miss Lynn, Miss M. C. Mappin, Miss M. M. 

 M'Crea, Michael Palairet, Mrs. M. Palairet, Miss 

 Philipson-Stow, Miss D. E. Pithie, F. G. Pound, F. H. 

 Pyman, H. Quayle, William Raw, Mrs. B. Reynolds, 

 Afiss F. M. Richardson, Harry Roberts, Mrs. H. M. 

 Rogers, Dr. J. H. Salter, Miss Searight, Mrs. Soames, 

 Miss Ethel Story, P. Leighton Stowell, W. Stowell, 

 Mrs. W. Stowell, P. M. Stratton, Mrs. P. M. Stratton, 

 Miss J. Strickland, Miss I. M. Teeke, Mrs. Thomycroft, 

 A. W. Turner, filiss N. Wadling, William N. Walker, 

 W. Weed, Rev. Parry J. Woodcock, F. Workman, 

 Mrs. F. Workman, A. Wright, Hugh Wyatt, Lt.-Col. 

 C. H. Young. 



Life Members : Capt. Edwin Cohen, Mrs. John H. 

 Hague, Mrs. W. H. Mj-ers, Miss P. Pirie, Mrs. Jessie G. 

 SeweU, Miss Edith L. WiUis. 



For Affiliation : The Lambeth Field Club. 



The Report of three meetings of the Publicity 

 Committee was presented. 



Lady Glenconner was elected a Vice- 

 President of the Society. Mr. Leonard 

 Hawksley was elected an Hon. Fellow. 



The coming visit to England of Mr. T. 

 Gilbert Pearson, President of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies of the U.S.A., 

 was announced, and arrangements for welcom- 

 ing him considered. 



The question of the destruction of birds by 

 fuel oil, the working of the Plumage Act, and 

 other matters, were discussed at length. 



WILD BIRDS' EGGS 



Following upon the correspondence published 

 in the Times (and reprinted in the Annual 

 Report of the R.S.P.), between Lord Buxton 

 and the B.O.U., and Lord Buxton and the 

 Oological Dinner Committee respectively, and 

 the letter from the B.O.U. to the same journal, 

 the following leading article appeared in the 

 Times (April 13th, 1922) :— 



" Is the taking of wild birds' eggs in Great 

 Britain really necessary to science ? Lord 

 Buxton, at the annual meeting of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, com- 

 mented adversely on an exhibition of clutches 

 of eggs at a recent ' oological ' dinner, as being 

 a menace to the due enforcement of the laws 

 protecting wild birds. The President and 

 Honorary Secretary of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, in a letter disclaimed any ojQ&cial 

 connexion with the oologists, protested their 



own support of bird protection, and, in par- 

 ticular, stated their ambition to limit the 

 collecting of eggs to * the taking of such as are 

 required in the interests of science.* Science 

 is a big word with which to defend the robbing 

 of nests in Great Britain. Many ornithologists 

 incline to the view that collections of eggs 

 minister more to the ambitions of dilettanti 

 than to the advancement of zoology. In any 

 event, there are already complete collections 

 in many museums of this country easily avail- 

 able to the zealous student. Nor, with the 

 exception of two or three sub-species of dubious 

 validity, are there any rare birds peculiar to 

 this country not common in other parts of 

 Europe. Territorial ornithology, in the sense 

 of lists and collections of birds or of eggs 

 indigenous to Great Britain or to the separate 

 counties of this country, is responsible for 

 much senseless destruction of life, and adds 

 little to real knowledge. Biological and political 

 regions are seldom equivalent. We prefer the 

 songs of the birds, and trust that Lord Buxton 

 will not be too readily satisfied with the reply 

 to his protest." 



Letters have also appeared from Professor 

 Kennedy Orton, Mrs. Edward Clodd, Mr. F. J. 

 Waydelin, and others. The first-named 

 writes : — 



" For the past three days I have been watch- 

 ing a stony waste on the Downs of Sussex, 

 where a pair or so of stone curlews still attempt 

 to breed. Every day this area has been most 

 systematically searched by ' collectors ' or their 

 agents for eggs of this bird. In a neighbouring 

 town one may see a case with a pair of the 

 parent birds and their two young stuffed — all 

 obtained in recent years on this small breeding 

 site. How can the public be made to realise 

 that such action means extinction ? " 



Mrs. Clodd teUs of similar persecution of the 

 Stone Curlew in Suffolk, and comments : — 



" The legal prohibition against ' taking ' or 

 * destroying,' or ' inciting any other person to 

 take or destroy,' is not enough. Detection of 

 the actual talang is too difficult, for this part 

 of the mischief is often wrought by labourers or 

 fishermen in the course of their calling, who, 

 as one of them on the River Aide said to me, 

 ' know what to do with a rare bird.' Only in 

 making possession illegal can there be effective 

 protection." 



Mr. Waydelin, referring to the official dis- 

 claimer of the B.O.U. and their avowed 

 principles, says : — 



