52 



Bird Notes and News 



The late Mr. W. H. Hudson 



Mr, W. H. Hudson, whose sympathy 

 and active support were with the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds from 

 the time of its institution to the day of 

 his death in August last, has left the 

 Society residuary legatee under his will. 

 By the gifts made to it in his lifetime 

 and by the estate now bequeathed, he 

 indicates his express desire for the exten- 

 sion of the Bird and Tree educational 

 schemes in the elementary schools, and 

 the provision of attractive literature in 

 connection with this. In regard to the 

 latter, he states in a paper accompanying 

 the will that he wishes leaflets and 

 short pamphlets to be published suit- 

 able for the reading of children in 

 village schools. " The leaflets are to 

 be composed more or less on the 

 lines of those I have written for the 

 Society ; each is to be illustrated with 

 a coloured figure of a bird, the writing 

 is to be not so much ' educative ' or 

 ' informative ' as ' anecdotal.' This, I 

 find, is the easiest way to attract the 

 child's attention to the subject. The 

 coloured picture, the story told, excite 

 that interest in and love of the birds 

 which leads to their protection. I think 

 the Society should print two or three 

 leaflets of this kind each year, if not 

 more." 



The leaflets already issued, to which 

 allusion is made, are : "A Thrush that 

 never lived," " On liberating Captive 

 Birds," " A Linnet for Sixpence," and 

 "A Tired Traveller," and Mr. Hudson 

 had specified several chapters in his 

 published works which he wished to be 

 adapted for this purpose. 



Mr. Hudson directed that all his MSS, 

 notebooks, and letters, and any scraps of 

 written paper (unless specially marked 

 for publication, in which case they are to 

 be offered first to his publishers, Messrs. 

 J. M. Dent & Sons) should be destroyed. 



He left £100 to Miss Linda Gardiner, 

 secretary of the Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, in appreciation of 

 her many years' work in the cause of bird 



protection, and in gratitude for her friend- 

 ship ; £100, a copy of his " Argentine 

 Ornithology," and all the books by him- 

 self on his bookshelves, to Morley Roberts, 

 in remembrance of their long and close 

 friendship ; £100 to Edward Garnett, of 

 Edenbridge, in recognition of his helpful 

 friendship. 



After a few smaller bequests, the 

 residue is left to the Society. 



Dr. PhiUp Gosse, who joined the 

 Council of the R.S.P.B. last year, con- 

 tributes to The Bookynan's Journal, 

 (October, 1922) an "Impression" of 

 Mr. Hudson which will be of interest to 

 the many who knew the great writer 

 only through his books. It happened 

 that the meeting to which Dr. Gosse 

 alludes (October, 1921) was the last Mr. 

 Hudson attended ; later in the year he 

 left London for Penzance, not returning 

 until the middle of June, 1922. He 

 writes : — 



" It was at a Council Meeting of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, held in 

 London in 1921. The meeting had been 

 proceeding for some time when the door 

 opened and there entered a figure which could 

 not fail to arrest attention. 



" It was evident that the new-comer was 

 emharrassecl, as, after the door closed behind 

 him, he stood for a moment with his back to 

 it, glancing round him with a sort of shy 

 defiance. He made me think of a jaguar, or 

 puma, or of some such trapped wild animal, 

 as he seaiched round the room as if for some 

 way of escape. 



" At once I felt sure that this arresting (and 

 arrested) figure could be none other than the 

 man in the whole of England I most wished to 

 meet. His embarrassment was over in a few 

 moments, as various friends gathered round to 

 welcome him. 



" There is always, I have foimd, a risk of 

 disappointment in meeting for the first time 

 a man whose works have delighted and inspired 

 one ; but with W. H. Hudson the first impres- 

 sion was anything rather than disappointing. 

 He was remarkably tall, thin, and still active, 

 and although he was an old man, his agile 



