30 



Bird Notes and News 



that profit could be made by sale of their 

 feathers. His name was Edwin Cawston ; 

 for two years he exhibited his ostriches in a 

 so-called " Ostrich Farm " to the residents 

 and sun-scorched rurals in the vicinity and 

 to the grand army of tourists ever percolating 

 through Southern California. But he observed 

 his birds dying ; he had purchased them from 

 the Boers in Natal, driven them into the hold 

 of a sailing ship and brought them over the 

 rolling Atlantic, past Saint Helena, to the 

 shore at Galveston, Texas. The loss of them 

 meant the loss of twenty thousand dollars. 



Therefore, he obtained a ranch at Norwalk, 

 near the ocean some twenty miles away, and 

 there for ten years tended his strange flock, 

 trying to attract some visitors from Los Angeles 

 to whom he might sell feathers. Neither the 

 visitors nor the surrounding gentry purchased 

 his plumes, so he had to send them to London, 

 and sell them wholesale in the open market, 

 the ostrich-feather market of the world. 



At the beginning of the present century he 

 moved nearer to Los Angeles, and with his 

 increased ostrich population began to advertise 



his feathers all over the United States. In five 

 years he was a miUionaire ; he then transferred 

 his interests to an incorporated company, and 

 sailed for his native land. The British Govern- 

 ment employed him in recruiting work, and his 

 three sons entered the army ; one of these 

 fell at the Dardanelles. In 1920, while engaged 

 in a game of tennis, he passed away, evidently 

 owing to strain on the heart. He was an 

 athlete in his youth and had won gold and 

 silver cups at Charterhouse School for various 

 athletic feats. 



This is not the case of a poor boy rising to 

 wealth and influence by his own unaided 

 exertion, but of a rich man's son who endowed 

 a continent with a useful industry — the manu- 

 facture of ostrich feathers, giving employment 

 to thousands of women, and in the future to be 

 one of the greatest commercial assets of Cali- 

 fornia and Arizona. He was a man of strict 

 integrity, respected by those who were in his 

 employ for years, and by all the bankers and 

 commercial powers with whom he came in 

 contact. For ever will the name of Cawston 

 be honoured in California. 



Books Received 



In " Songs of the Birds " (London : John Lane, 

 The Bodley Head ; 6s.) Professor Walter Gar- 

 stang essays the task, which may well be 

 regarded as an impossible one, of translating 

 bird music into letters of the spoken alphabet 

 set to music of ordinary notation. Whatever 

 bird-lovers may individually decide as to the 

 success of his efforts in musical bars, prose and 

 poem, thus to convey the melody and timbre 

 of Warbler, Wren or Finch, they can have but 

 one opinion as to the interest and charm of the 

 essay on " The Interpretation of Bird-Music," 

 by which these are prefaced. " The number 

 of our countrymen and countrywomen," as 

 Dr. Garstang truly remarks, " who can pick 

 out an individual song from the orchestra of 

 Spring, and correctly identify it, is extraordinar- 

 ily small." He might go further and say that 

 the number who can identify any song, heard 

 alone and clearly, is neghgible, even among 

 learned ornithologists and intelligent country 

 children. Anything which can add to tMs 

 number adds immeasurably to their pleasures 

 in life and helps to an appreciation of bird 

 language and of its value both aesthetically and 

 scientifically. Bird-students are not likely to 

 neglect Dr Garstang's considered and suggestive 

 contribution to a fascinating subject. 



" Robin in Khaki : A Book of Birdeens," 

 by Isa J. Postgate (London : The De la More 

 Press ; 3s. 6d.), consists of a series of pleasant 

 little sketches of wild birds individually known 

 to the writer, which will be appreciated by 

 those who, disliking the cage, have and love 

 their pets in home and garden. Not every 

 dweller by the North Sea can boast of twelve 

 species as visitors to sitting-room and bedroom, 

 including a Goldcrest who came to drink from 

 the ewer ; while a Robin singing from the cruet- 

 stand, or a Tit pecking on the top of a candle 

 seem ordinary occurrences in Miss Postgate's 

 home. Readers must not be deterred by 

 the somewhat out-of-date title. 



" Sea and Shore Birds, and How to Identify 

 Them," by R. H. W. Hodges (London : The 

 Epworth Press ; Is. 6d.), is one of a usefid 

 " How to Identify " series, and of a size to pack 

 handily in the holidaymaker's case or slip into 

 his pocket. It is fully illustrated in black and 

 white. 



Nos. 1 and 2 of " Natureland," Dr. Graham 

 Renshaw's new venture, has various illustrated 

 articles and notes on birds, including " Wax- 

 wings in Norfolk," by Mr. A. H. Patterson, and 

 " The Hiding Instinct in Birds," by Mr. W. 

 Shore Bailey. The prospectus may be had from 

 the Editor, Bridge House, Sale, Cheshire. 



