92 



Bird Notes and News 



after long years of investigation and 

 consideration, the trade in wild birds' 

 plumage has been placed under a ban 

 by the two leading nations of the world, 

 Great Britain and America. It is up 

 to firms and women alike to respect 

 the spirit and intention of the law. 



A report in the Agricultural Journal 

 of India (Vol. XV.) on the economic 

 value of the Blue Jay, or Indian 

 Roller, as an extremely useful bird in 

 India and Ceylon through its destruction 

 of cutworms and other agricultural 



Moor-B 



pests, has the suggestive comment 

 that " The bird is protected under 

 the Wild Birds' and Animals' Pro- 

 tection Act. In spite of this, Europeans 

 frequently shoot them, especially in 

 the neighbourhood of military canton- 

 ments, for the sake of the brilliantly 

 coloured wings," and in spite of this, 

 the common Jay has been added by 

 the Board of Trade Advisory Com- 

 mittee to the schedule of the 

 Plumage Act as a bird whose feathers 

 may be imported into this country. 

 It is the name by which the Roller 

 has commonly been imported. 



The destruction of wild birds through 

 the burning of gorse in nesting-time has 

 been referred to more than once in 

 Bird Notes and News. In consequence 

 of several complaints, and of a question 

 from the Dorset County Council as to the 

 legality of the proceeding, a letter on the 

 subject was, on April 13th, addressed by 

 the Hon. Secretary of the Watchers' Com- 

 mittee of the R.S.P.B. to the Wild Birds 

 Advisory Committee (Home Office) asking 

 that some power should be given to 

 Councils to deal with the matter. There 

 is no law at present for checking an evil 

 which is a serious menace to ground- and 

 gorse-nesting birds, the only provision 

 dealing with it being a clause in the 

 Malicious Damage Act 1861 which is of 

 no practical use in the majority of cases. 

 The Home Office referred the question 

 to the Ministry of Agriculture, who 

 replied that landowners were not likely 

 to burn heather at a time prejudicial to 

 grouse, and as regards gorse referred to 

 their leaflet on " Improvement of poor hill 

 pastures," in which it is recommended 

 that gorse should be burnt in the latter 

 half of July in order that the plants 

 may be entirely destroyed, since spring or 

 winter burning only makes " the pest shoot 

 from the stumps more densely than ever." 

 As the object of gorse-burning is under- 

 stood to be the production of young growth 

 and not eradication,this advice is poor com- 

 fort to those who wish to save the birds. 



urmng 



The Society accordingly invited the 

 Dorset Council to support their recom- 

 mendation that it should be made an 

 offence to burn gorse or heather after 

 March 31st in any year, but the Council's 

 Wild Birds Protection Committee " de- 

 cided not to take action." 



" J. M. D." writes in the Morning 

 Post, June 2nd, 1^23 : — 



Here in Dorset, as in many other English 

 counties, moors are burnt at their owners', 

 or tenants', own sweet will. Often during 

 the month of June can be seen smoke-wisps 

 curling and red fires glowing along the horizon. 

 Now the small insect-eating birds of Great 

 Britain are an invaluable asset to the farmer. 

 Though in an indirect fashion, they are as great 

 income-earners to him as are the grouse to the 

 Highland laird. And for one small bird which 

 makes its nest in the garden hedge a dozen 

 nest on the open moorland. What, then, must 

 be the devastation wrought in their ranks 

 by these late spring and early summer holo- 

 causts ? As in the case of moor-burning in 

 Scotland, a date ought to be fixed after which 

 these fires must cease. That date need not 

 necessarily be April 20th, but we have scores 

 of eminent ornithologists who, meeting in con- 

 clave, would definitely fix it. After which an 

 Act could be passed which neither landlords 

 nor tenants dare contravene. Perhaps the 

 most convenient manner of passing this enact- 

 ment would be to aflELx it as a clause to the Wild 

 Birds Protection Act, which has aheady done 

 such yeoman service for our honest, hard- 

 working British birds. 



