Bird Notes and News 



39 



of civilisation ? It may well be that in some 

 areas timber must be the chief consideration. 

 But if you take forestry all round, if you think 

 of what the wild lands will mean to the nation 

 of the future, it is easy to understand how it is 

 that many people, in a time of transition like 

 this, when the old woods and moors are being 

 so rapidly and extensively transformed, are 

 anxious, are almost apprehensive, lest the new 

 forests which they already see in the making 

 should turn out to be beastless and birdless, 

 devoid of living interest and educational power. 



" Practically everyone recognises that there 

 has been of recent years an enormous increase 

 of intelligent interest in wild living Nature. 

 The output of literature on the wild life of 

 Britain alone is very considerable, and is eagerly 

 read by the public. The natural history 

 museums and gardens attract a constant flow, 

 and on general holidays enormous crowds of 

 interested visitors. Again, Nature study is 

 coming more and more into vogue in our 

 system of education. It is no longer merely 

 a hobby for a few. It is being taken up with 

 keen interest by an ever-growing number of 

 children and young people, on whose minds it 

 exercises far-reaching beneficial effects. It 

 helps forward in various ways — as one can see 

 particularly in the Nature study reports from 

 American schools — ^the right moral develop- 

 ment of the children. It refines and humanises 



them more effectively perhaps than any other 

 factor in their education. I can testify to this 

 from my own observation ; and have moreover 

 documentary evidence of this welcome fact. 



" If the Forestry Commission, whilst it 

 clears and replants large areas of land, is in- 

 different to the fate of the wild life inhabiting 

 those areas, then the wild creatures — the few 

 British species that are left us — will be driven 

 off the cleared land for lack of shelter, and 

 will be left to the chance mercies of neighbour- 

 ing landowners on properties perhaps not well 

 found in woods and cover ; and then it is 

 extremely doubtful whether any of them 

 will survive. 



" The Forestry Commission has it in its power 

 to save the situation. It has the lands, the 

 means, the authority, the opportunity." 



The following reply has been received from 

 the Forestry Commission to a letter from the 

 Hon. Secretary of the Watchers' Committee 

 of the Society, as to the preservation of Bird 

 life in the forestry areas : — 



" No special precautions are taken for the 

 conservation of Bird life on the areas acquired 

 and planted by the Forestry Commission. 

 The fact that large areas are being enclosed and 

 so secluded would, however, tend to encourage 

 the presence of birds and there is an advantage 

 if certain birds are present in our plantations." 



London's Bird Sanctuaries 



The success, even in their first season, of 

 the sanctuaries in Hyde Park and Kensington 

 Gardens has been marked, and will encourage 

 the Parks Authorities of other cities and towns 

 to adopt this eminently economical method 

 of enriching the local bird life. Yet the 

 recommendations of the Committee which 

 have been carried out, wTites a correspondent 

 of the Times (July 25th, 1922), " have so far 

 been merely negative. They have cost the 

 taxpayer little or nothing. They have con- 

 sisted merely in restraining the officious 

 activities of the gardeners in mowing down 

 the tall grasses, cutting the undergrowth, 

 pruning the shrubs, and raking, sweeping, 

 and scarifpng the surface of the ground. 



" There has been a little planting of suitable 

 shrubs and bushes, but it must be four or five 

 years before the benefits of these can make 

 themselves apparent. Altogether twenty 

 species have bred this season in Hyde Park 



or Kensington Gardens. The following are 

 included : Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Black- 

 bird, Redbreast, Hedge Sparrow, Lesser White- 

 throat, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, 

 Spotted Fly-catcher, Starling, Tawny Owl, 

 Mallard, Wood Pigeon, Moor Hen and Coot. 

 All through May, June and July some Swifts 

 have been hawking over the Long Water. 

 There were, it would seem, two pairs, and they 

 may have bred in some neighbouring steeple. 

 " The sanctuary along the bank of the 

 Long Water is still rather devoid of cover. 

 Yet in it, or in the neighbourhood, the present 

 writer noted the foUo^ving species during the 

 winter or spring of 1922 : Black-cap, Garden 

 Warbler, Wood Wren, Sedge Warbler, Pied 

 Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Lesser Spotted Wood- 

 pecker, Great Crested Grebe, Dabchick, and 

 Kingfisher. It is not impossible that some 

 of these, in course of time, may stay and 

 nest." 



