Bird Notes and News 



85 



Economic Ornithology 



The Rev, J. R. Hale writes to British 

 Birds (June, 1923) to say that in a 

 nest of the Brown Owl in Kent, 

 containing two newly-hatched young 

 ones, he counted thirty long-tailed 

 field-mice. 



THE LAPWING 



In the House of Commons on June 

 5th, Major Douglas Brown asked if 

 attention had been drawn to the 

 decrease of Peewits in the northern 

 counties this year : if this decrease is 

 attributed to the increasing collection 

 of eggs : and if, in view of the value 

 of this bird to agriculture, the 

 advisability of strengthening the law 

 dealing with the collection of Peewits' 

 eggs will be considered ? 



Mr. Bridgman (Home Secretary) 

 replied : My attention has not been 

 drawn to the particular decrease of 

 the bird in the northern counties, 

 but I am aware that a resolution 

 on the general decrease of the bird 

 throughout the country was passed 

 on the 10th May by the Council of 

 Agriculture for England and Scotland. 

 It is proposed to insert a special 

 proviso for the protection of the 

 Peewit and its eggs in the Wild Birds 

 Protection Bill. 



THE BULLFINCH 



In the Burton Wood (Lancashire) 

 Parish Magazine the Rev. A. M. 

 Mitchell quotes the defence of the 

 Bullfinch in the Spring Number of 

 Bird Notes and News, and adds : — 



The mis judgment of the Bullfinch (and the 

 sparrow) goes very far back. In our Burton 

 Wood records for the 18th century we read 

 of the sentence of death pronounced against 

 the innocent : " At a public meeting held 

 in Burton Wood on November 23rd, 1797, 

 it was agreed that whereas there was allowed 

 from the Parish of Warrington threepence a 

 dozen for sparrow heads, we whose names 

 are hereafter recorded do allow threepence 

 per dozen for sparrow and goold and flax 

 finches' heads, and likewise sixpence per 



dozen for bullfinches' heads, to be paid by 

 the Chapel Warden." 



" Flax " finch is the Chaffinch, and 

 from the amounts paid it would appear 

 that the " goold " finch was more 

 common than the Bullfinch in those 

 days, since the 18th century vestries, 

 in their sublime ignorance, usually 

 paid the most for the rarer birds, 

 just as do their successors the 

 " Sparrow " clubs to-day. The Burton 

 Wood order against the Bullfinch was 

 rescinded in 1805, but the learning 

 of many a sparrow-club is a hundred 

 years or so behind that of the old 

 vestries. 



TO SAVE THE FRUIT 



The destruction of apple and plum 

 orchards in Kent by winter-moth larvae, 

 and the damage done elsewhere by cater- 

 pillars and blight (aphis) this year, has 

 again drawn attention to the necessity 

 for protecting birds instead of killing 

 them. Mr. F. C. H. Borrett writes in 

 the Morning Post (June 23rd, 1923) :— 



If any men richly deserve the plague of 

 caterpillars and other insects with which they 

 are now receiving punishment, it is the majority 

 of fruit growers. In Kent I have seen piles of 

 dead birds in every corner of a cherry orchard, 

 and have heard the guns going from sunrise 

 to sunset, the dead and wounded birds falling 

 continuously in all directions. On asking a 

 man whether he killed every bird that came 

 into his fruit orchard, his answer was that he 

 killed every bird he could — of every sort — 

 when his fruit was ripening and ripe. 

 Other writers point out that the winter- 

 moth is destroyed by Great Tit, Willow- 

 Wren and other warblers. Jackdaw, Star- 

 ling, and Jay, Dr. W. E. Collinge recording 

 100 umber and winter-moths taken in an 

 hour by Great Tits from an infested tree. 



Growers undoubtedly are beginning to 

 realise their mistake. The owner of 

 large orchards in the Woodnesborough 

 district is reported to have said : — 



" Our orchards are a wilderness. Bird 

 destruction must be stopped. We must have 

 more birds, as more birds mean fewer insects." 



