Bird Notes and News 



67 



birds. One essential, however, must be 

 borne in mind. While the inner area 

 is secured for a safe breeding site, bird- 

 protection in both park and town as a 

 whole should not be overlooked. Warn- 

 ings against birdnesting, etc., in public 

 grounds should be something more obvious 

 than a bye-law amid fifty others on a 

 notice-board ; and the borough should 

 possess a Protection Order at least as 

 inclusive as the county Order, and prefer- 

 ably much more so. Manchester, which 

 has all these years been without an Order, 

 is now combining its scheme of sanctuaries 

 with application for an all-the-year Pro- 

 tection Order for the Borough similar to 

 that secured by Liverpool. 



Beyond the " fairies' corner " of the 

 parks, there are other even more important 

 sanctuaries yet to be made. Cemeteries 

 have been suggested more than once ; 

 Mr. Gilbert Pearson advocates this for 

 the United States by a special pamphlet. 

 All municipal sewage farms and water 

 companies' reservoirs afford admirable 

 opportunity for preserving and encourag- 

 ing many rare birds. An appeal has 

 already been addressed by the B.O.U. 

 to the Reading Corporation to proclaim 

 their sewage farm a Bird Sanctuary. 

 Here, in 1922, writes Mr. H. M. Wallis 

 in the Reading Mercury, " between twenty 

 and five-and-twenty species were noted. 



all foreign and some of extreme rarity." 

 " Birds from Iceland, Norway, Spitzbergen , 

 and the deltas of the great Siberian rivers, met 

 others from Holland, North Africa and Spain. 

 The movement is plainly increasing, and 

 apparently a new inland line of migration for 

 sea-birds is in course of establishment under 

 our eyes. If these lovely creatures are let 

 alone there is no telling the extent and interest 

 of the phenomena which may follow." 



The same thing, in varied ways, is true 

 of such places all over the country. 

 Waders, Terns, and Ducks in particular 

 are attracted and find food ; and some 

 would probably remain if safety were 

 assured and the collector and the man 

 with a gun were barred out. Reservoirs, 

 again, attract innumerable bird visitors. 

 The Metropolitan Water Board has the 

 opportunity of giving a splendid lead 

 here. On all its reservoirs, it appears, 

 birds are protected, save in one instance, 

 where the Saturday afternoon sport of 

 a smaU party of gunners is maintained 

 at the expense of fuU security for Great 

 Crested Grebes and other beautiful occu- 

 pants of the water. But for this unfor- 

 tunate exception, the Water Board might 

 enjoy a share of the public favour and 

 enthusiasm which has been showered 

 upon His Majesty's Board of Works, 

 with the pleasant knowledge that it too 

 is showing forth a long-called-for and 

 popular example. 



THE DUKE AND THE JAYS 



Mr. Gilbert Ludford writes to the Hampsliire 

 Chronicle (March 16th, 1923) :— 



" Many years ago I was assisting at a 

 shoot at Welbeck. At the end of one beat 

 one of the guns — I think the late Lord 

 Berkeley Paget — was fondling a dead jay 

 and lamenting it should be necessary to 

 kill so handsome a bird. The Duke of 

 Portland, joining the group at the moment, 

 expressed himself in complete sympathy. 

 ' But,' he added, ' is it necessary ? " Turn- 



ing to the head keeper he requested him to 

 summon the heads of the various beats. 

 When they were all assembled — some eight 

 or nine of them — ' Now,' said his Grace, 

 ' I don't want you to tell me what you've 

 heard or what you have read, but simply 

 what you know from yoiu own personal 

 observation : Has any one of you ever 

 actually seen a jay with a pheasant's egg 1 ' 

 No one had, but one man had found an empty 

 pheasant's egg beneath a jay's nest. Verdict : 

 ' Not proven.' I should doubt whether any 

 jays were shot thereafter in the Clipstone 

 coverts." 



