Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY B-' THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Vol. X.] 



WINTER, 1922. 



[No. 4. 



Watchers and Watching 



BRITAIN'S RARE BIRDS 



The Watchers' Committee of the Societ}^ 

 have, as usual, issued the Report of two 

 years together, for the economising of 

 printing and postage ; and the new 

 issue, sent to all subscribers to the 

 Watchers' Fund, contains detailed ac- 

 counts, 1921-22, from all the areas which 

 are under the special care of the Com- 

 mittee. Fuller details are regularly re- 

 ceived from the officers themselves, a 

 remarkably keen and devoted body of 

 men, whose vigilance and loyalty alone 

 make it possible to preserve the rare 

 birds of the British Isles from the greed 

 and cunning of collectors. All the dis- 

 tricts have been visited by members of 

 the Committee and by friends specially 

 qualified to judge of the work done and 

 of the status of the birds. 



During 1921 twenty-seven Watchers 

 were employed at eighteen stations in 

 fourteen areas, and in 1922 thirty- three 

 men at twenty- three stations, the guard 

 having to be strengthened at some points 

 and new areas undertaken. The most 

 important districts are still the Shetland 

 Isles in the far north, and Dungeness in 

 the south-east corner of England, both 

 noted as the breeding-places of birds 

 which would undoubtedly have dis- 

 appeared but for the Society's efforts. 

 Other areas include Brean Down, where 

 a delightful Bird Sanctuary is brought 

 about by the Society renting the shoot- 

 ing rights ; the Freshwater district of 

 the Isle of Wight, an island which might 

 in itself be made a bird paradise ; Port- 

 land Isle, Dorset, put forward by Mr. 

 Edmund Selous as a peculiarly suitable 

 headland for a sanctuary if collectors 



and burd-catchers can be kept off ; Tin- 

 tagel, Cornwall ; Anglesey ; Ainsdale, 

 Lancashire, where trespassers of a some- 

 what rough type have to be dealt with ; 

 Ennerdale, Cumberland ; Aldeburgh, 

 Norfolk, recently made a protected area 

 at the request of the Society, and guarded 

 by notice boards ; Seamere (Norfolk) ; 

 Inchmickery ; Newburgh (Aberdeenshire) ; 

 and the Orkneys. 



To mention all the species of birds 

 which have been protected and preserved 

 by this anxious and carefully directed 

 work would be to enumerate practically 

 all those which are of infrequent oc- 

 currence or on the dangerous borderland 

 between infrequency and extreme rarity. 

 These, it must be remembered, com- 

 prise not only those so scarce as to be 

 unknown to the great majority of people 

 and in immediate danger of extermina- 

 tion (Kentish Plover, Sandwich and 

 Roseate Terns, Phalarope, etc.), but a 

 great number of most interesting birds, 

 such as Terns, Shellducks, Eiders, Grebes, 

 Fulmars, Solan Geese, Divers, Merlins, 

 Buzzards, Peregrines, Ravens, Stone Cur- 

 lews, Herons, Curlews, Redshanks, Rock 

 Pipits, more or less scarce if not in im- 

 mediate peril. The yet commoner but 

 equally delightful small birds, Goldfinches, 

 Wheatears. Stonechats, Corn Buntings, 

 Wagtails, Linnets, Larks, Ringed Plovers, 

 and so on, also share in a protection 

 from many enemies which is theirs 

 through the presence of Watchers. 



The two birds perhaps best known to 

 the public as owing their very existence 

 to unceasing watchfulness are the Kite 

 and the Chough. That the Kite as a 



