Bird Notes and News 



61 



which, on misty and rainy nights, cling in 

 clusters to the perches, demonstrate the 

 necessity for the continued maintenance of 

 these harbours of refuge for bewildered and 

 tired bird-travellers. 



" Larks, Wagtails, Wheatears, Warblers, 

 Pipits, Ring-Ouzels, Redstarts, Flycatchers, 

 Chiffchafis, Blackcaps, Redwings, Rock Doves, 

 Starlings, Whinchats, Goldcrests, Blackbirds 

 and Thrushes are among the birds most fre- 

 quently recorded as having used the perches. 

 Woodcock and Snipe have also been seen. 



" A variety of matters other than those 

 directly connected with the employment of 

 their own Watchers have occupied the atten- 

 tion of the Committee, such as the condition 

 of the birds in the Fame Islands, the Argyll- 

 shire Vermin Club and similar Associations 

 inimical to wild bird-life, compensation to 

 farmers for alleged depredations by birds-of- 

 prey in certain cases where proof to the con- 

 trary has been unobtainable, the erection of 

 notice-boards, and the insertion in news- 

 papers of warnings against the infringement 

 of the Bird Protection laws, the continued 

 use of the pole-trap, the temporary protection 

 of individual species specially threatened, the 

 preservation of Heronries, etc. 



Coastguard 



"Assurances have been received from the 

 Admiralty that instructions are still in force, 

 and orders issued to the coastguards to co- 

 operate with the Society in carrying out the 

 provisions of the Acts of Parliament for the 

 Protection of Wild Birds, and pleasing in- 

 formation has come to hand which goes to 

 prove that many of these men are individually 

 interested in this work, and are conscientiously 

 carrying it out." 



The Committee have to deplore the 

 loss this year of two prominent members, 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson and Mr. J. L. Bonhote, 

 and they have also lost three Watchers 

 — ^Mr. W. A. Nicholson, Hon. Watcher 

 of Inchmickery since 1909, who is taking 

 up his residence in Vancouver ; Mr. James 

 Hay, of North Roe, who, owing to ill- 

 health and advancing years, has to retire 

 from the position he has since 1908 

 faithfully and honourably filled ; and 

 Mr. Philip Hawkings, who from his 

 childhood up has helped to protect the 

 birds on Brean Down, but is leaving for 

 New Zealand. 



It can hardly be contended that the 

 extensive work of the Committee in their 

 untiring efforts to maintain and protect 

 unimpaired the avifauna of the British 

 Isles is an expensive work when it is 

 carried out for a bare five hundred a 

 year, a hundredth part of the price that 

 would be paid to secure one " old master " 

 for some art gallery. It is rendered 

 possible only by a great amount of 

 voluntary labour over and beyond the 

 loyal and devoted service of the paid 

 Watchers, and yet this sum is not forth- 

 coming from the ornithologists of Great 

 Britain. The amount received for 1921 

 (including two large donations) and for 

 1922 (up to December 1st) amounted in 

 all to barely £550. The regular sub- 

 scriptions to the Lighthouse Fund are 

 not enough to pay for the annual upkeep 

 of the perches. The special appeal* for 

 a hut in which the lonely Watcher on 

 Hermaness must find shelter day and 

 night realised about half its modest cost. 



One of the urgent matters now before 

 the Watchers' Committee, and the whole 

 Council of the Society, is the destruction 

 of bird-life by the discharge of oil-waste 

 from petrol-driven vessels in sea and 

 rivers. The Oil in Navigable Waters Act, 

 which came into force on January Ist, 

 1923, prohibits this in British territorial 

 waters, but is acknowledged as of little 

 avail until international regulations are 

 made. Strong effort was apparent to 

 keep the stuff off our coasts during the 

 bathing season ; but with the autumn the 

 trouble breaks out again. One of the 

 Society's Dungeness Watchers writes, 

 December 19th : — 



" On the foreshore I have seen nine Scoters 

 with oil on their plumage, and many more seem 

 to be making towards the shore. Several 

 Guillemots are completely covered ; it is 

 pitiful to see them trying to rid themselves of 

 the terrible stuff ; undoubtedly all must perish, 

 even those with the least bit of oil on ; in my 

 experience none recover. I am taking on 

 myself the painful duty of putting them out 

 of misery in the most humane manner." 



* See BiED Notes and News, Spring, 1922. 



