Bird Notes and News 



63 



movements were those of some graceful wild 

 animal, and I felt that to see him at his best, 

 I should observe him on the open pampa 

 of Argentina, rather than in the cramped 

 confines of a committee-room in the Middlesex 

 Guildhall. His white hair was frizzled and 

 wiry, his eyes dark and piercing beneath 

 prominent brows. Noticeable were the long 

 nervous fingers of his hands. 



" It was presently my good fortune to be 

 introduced to him. At first our acquaintance 

 seemed in danger of ending abruptly. I was 

 nervous, and he seemed to be somewhat off- 

 hand, almost rude. But when I told him that 

 I had lived at Beaulieu, in liis beloved New 

 Forest, his whole manner changed, and all at 

 once we were on the easiest of terms. From 

 then onwards he was delightful, talking freely 

 about his favourite bits of the Forest, par- 

 ticularly of the wood known as the King's 

 Plantation — about days spent in watching and 

 listening, especially listening, to birds, naming, 

 as I remember, the songs of the red-shank, and 

 the white-throat, and what evidently interested 

 him very much, the ' thrumming of the wood- 

 cocks courting.' 



■' He talked also about Dartford Warblers, 

 and was hopeful that these favourites of his — 

 he liked to call them ' Furze Fairies ' — would 

 continue to hold their own in the South of 

 England. He told me also about his yearly 

 visits to Norfolk— I think, to Wells — each 

 November and December to watch the winter 

 birds that congregate on the mud-flats there 

 by the sea ; but he found he could no longer 

 stand the cold, as his heart was weak, nor, for 

 the same cause, could he spend the winter in 

 London, being compelled to seek the more 

 congenial climate of Cornwall. 



" I led him on to talk about his books, by 

 telling him the prices now asked by second-hand 

 booksellers for some of his first editions. This 

 subject ob\dously pleased him, and he told me 

 that, only a few days previously, a copy of 

 his ' Argentine Ornithology ' had been sold 

 for twenty-two pounds. He also told me he 

 was bringing out a new edition of his ' Lost 

 British Birds ' with some fifteen coloured 

 plates by Gronvold, and that he was with- 

 drawing from circulation the old edition of 

 this pamphlet, which had been issued by the 

 Society many years pre\4ously. He was good 

 enough to give me a copy of this now obsolete 

 issue to add to my collection of his works, 

 since, though I already possessed most of the 

 pamphlets he wrote from time to time for the 

 Society, this one I had never even heard of." 



Dr. Gosse goes on to recall an earlier 

 acquaintance with IVIr. Hudson when, 

 from the trenches near Armentieres, he 

 wTOte in 1915 to tell him of the relief 

 afforded by reading one of his books amid 

 the sickening squalor of war, and received 

 in reply a characteristic letter, which is 

 given in full, from " the man who has 

 done more, probably, than any one of our 

 times to foster and encourage a love of 

 all wild living things and, above all, of 

 our native wild birds," 



MEMORIAL TO MR. HUDSON 



At the instance and invitation of Mr. 

 R. B. Cunninghame Graham, a number 

 of iVIr. Hudson's friends met together, on 

 November 27th, at Aldine House, W.C. 

 (by the kindness of Messrs. J. M. Dent 

 & Sons), to consider the question of a 

 Memorial and what form it should most 

 fitly take. IVIr. Graham presided, sup- 

 ported by Viscount and Viscountess Grey 

 of Fallodon, :Mr. Ernest Bell, :Mr. J. Bone, 

 ]\Ir. Muirhead Bone, j\Ii\ Theodore Byard, 

 Mr. Joseph Conrad, M\ J. M. Dent, Mr. 

 Hugh Dent, j\Ii\ Gerald Duckworth, ]\Irs. 

 Dummitt, i\Ir. C. S. Evans, IMr. John 

 Galsworthy, Miss L. Gardiner, Mr. Edward 

 Garnett, ]\Ir. Edmimd Gosse, Dr. Philip 

 Gosse, ]\Ir. Rudge Harding, Miss Violet 

 Hunt, ]Mi\ Holbrook Jackson, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Frank E. Lemon, ]\Irs. Reginald 

 McKenna, jNIr. H. J. Massingham, ]Mr. 

 G. H. Milstead, JN'Ir. H. W. Nevinson, 

 Mr. S. K. Ratcliff, Major Roberts, 

 Prof. Wm. Rothenstein, IMr. E. Rhys, 

 Ml. J. C. Squire, Mr. G. F. Wilson. 



Letters of regret at inability to attend 

 and expressing sympathy with the object 

 of the meeting, were reported as having 

 been received from Earl Buxton, ]VIr. 

 G. K. Chesterton, the Hon. Islis. F. D. 

 Drewitt, j\Ir. J. Drinkwater, Mr. W. R. 

 Ogilvie Grant, ^Ir. Maurice Hewlett, 

 ]\Ir. Wynnard Hooper, :Mr. H. F. Jones, 

 Mr. E. V. Lucas, :\Irs. E. Fuller Maitland, 

 ]\Ir. Walter de la Mare, :Mrs. Naylor, :Mr. 

 B. L. Richmond, ;Mi'. Morley Roberts and 

 Margaret, Ranee of Sarawak. 



The Chairman, one of Mr. Hudson's 

 oldest friends (and to whom "El Ombu " 



