Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Vol. X.] 



SPRING, 1923. 



[No. 5. 



More about Bird Sanctuaries 



According to the Times, Sir Lionel 

 Earle, Permanent Secretary of the Board 

 of Works, and Chairman of the London 

 Parks Sanctuaries Committee, has been 

 astonished at the enthusiasm created by 

 the proposal to set aside these sanctuaries, 

 and by the torrent of inquiries which has 

 descended upon him as to how such 

 refuges can be made. The idea has 

 indeed taken with the public in a manner 

 that shows how little beyond a shining 

 example and a lead is needed to stir up 

 popular delight in wild birds as free and 

 unmolested fellow-citizens. Especially, 

 no doubt, does the pleasure of seeing a 

 more abundant and more varied bird-life 

 round about its own home and haunts 

 appeal to the non-scientific bird-lover, 

 who is too often left entirely cold by 

 efforts to save even the most interesting 

 of disappearing species which do not 

 come within his own ken. The love and 

 protection of birds not unnaturally begins 

 at home. It has been touching to note 

 the anxious ignorance with which inform- 

 ation has been sought and given in news- 

 paper correspondence, and the curious 

 questions which have been asked of the 

 R.S.P.B. as to the nature and results of 

 a sanctuary. How soon would these 

 Park sanctuaries be " put up " ? What 

 birds would come to them ? Would the 

 nightingale be heard next spring in Hyde 

 Park ? How many birds were " turned 

 out " to stock the place ? — are some of 

 the queries which have been put to the 

 Society ; while an eager observer remarked 

 in one of the papers how pleasingly the 

 presence of a Blue Tit in the Embankment 

 Gardens gave proof positive of the value 

 of the yet barely marked-out bird-refuges 

 in Kensington ! 



WALTON HALL 



The idea of sanctuaries is of course no 

 new one. Eighty years ago Charles 

 Waterton, who might well be adopted as 

 one of the patron-saints of Bird Pro- 

 tectors, made Walton Hall, in Yorkshire, 

 the earliest model of its kind. The house 

 was moated, there were ponds and swampy 

 places in the grounds, old majestic trees, 

 ivy-covered ruins, holly hedges to keep 

 out cats and other poachers ; and all 

 manner of nesting boxes and holes were 

 contrived for Owls and Woodpeckers, 

 Tits and Starlings. Circular starling- 

 towers, on a base five feet high (a height 

 which Waterton calculated was safe from 

 the spring of a cat), and constructed 

 something after the fashion of a dove-cot, 

 were built ; yew-hedges were specially 

 favoured for sheltering small birds ; 

 cavities in old tree-trunks were formed 

 and shut in with doors, to attract Cole- 

 Tits, and an old oak was hollowed out 

 to serve for Owls. Round about the 

 grounds was built a wall eight feet high, 

 and this was raised to sixteen feet where 

 it bordered the canal, in order to defy 

 guns from barges. The very year the 

 wall was finished came the Herons, birds 

 which Waterton especially valued, and 

 soon established a heronry within the 

 grounds. At one time he had his fish- 

 ponds drained on account of the number 

 of rats which infested them. On this he 

 comments : — 



" Had I known as much then as I do now 

 of the valuable services of the Heron I should 

 not have made the change. The draining of 

 the ponds did not seem to lessen the number of 

 rats ; but soon after the Herons settled here to 

 breed, the rats became extremely scarce, and 

 now I rarely see one in the place. I often 



