Bird Notes and News 



105 



Urling Smith (Glos) ; Kenneth Spence (W.) ; Miss 

 Sturt (W.) ; Lady Jemingham (S.W.) ; J. E. Titley 

 (Warwick) ; Miss M. Trevelyan (Herts) ; Lady Tucker 

 (S.W.) ; G. H. Underhill (S.W.) ; Miss E. C. Underwood 

 (Lines) ; Col. H. Warde (Kent) ; Mrs. Waterfield (N.) ; 

 Brian Weston (Sussex) ; Mrs. Wright (Essex) ; Robert 

 A. Wright (Cambs). 



Life Membees : — Miss Beatrice R. Homan (S.W.) ; 

 Philip F. King (Lanes). 



Affiliated : — Ist Chesham Guides. Broomsgrove 

 School Natural History Society. 



The Watchers' Committee reported 

 with regard to the need for increased 

 placards and wardens in Epping Forest, 

 especially during the nesting season. 

 The Society's inspector had in three 

 weeks' watching warned over 200 persons 

 found disturbing the birds ; catapults 

 and illegally taken eggs had been con- 

 fiscated, all birdnesting and bird-catching 

 being prohibited by the Forest bye-laws. 

 Various contraventions of the W.B.P. 

 Acts and the action of the Committee 

 thereon, were also discussed. 



The Publicity Committee reported on 

 bird-protection in Italy, the sale of 

 Skylarks for food, the British Empire 

 Exhibition, 1924, and other matters. 



The introduction in the House of 

 Lords of the Bird Protection Bill ; the 

 appointment of Lord Ullswater as a 

 member of the Board of Trade Advisory 

 Committee on the Plumage Act, in 

 succession to Earl Buxton, appointed 

 chairman ; the judging of Bird and Tree 

 Essays in the 1923 Competition; and 

 other subjects were considered. Thirty- 

 eight Bird and Tree Festivals recently 

 held included the presentation of the 

 Hampshire Shield to Ridge School, at 

 Broadlands, Romsey, by Mrs. Wilfred 

 Ashley. 



Next meeting of the Council, Oct. 19th. 



GREETING CARD 



Mr. A. Thorburn has once again 

 given one of his charming pictures of 

 bird-life for the Greeting-card of the 

 R.S.P.B. This time it is " King Harry " 

 (the Goldfinch), and the card may be 

 had, with or without calendar for 1924, 

 from the Society, price 4^d., or 4s. 3d. a 

 dozen, post free. 



THE LATE Mr. W. H. HUDSON 



The memorial to Mr. W. H. Hudson 

 in Broadwater Cemetery has now been 

 completed and was in place on the 

 anniversary of his death, August 18th. 

 As he had expressed a wish that any- 

 thing erected at his grave should be 

 similar to the cross to Richard Jefferies, 

 who also was buried at Broadwater, the 

 memorial consists of a simple cross, 

 bearing his name with dates of his birth 

 and death, together with the words he 

 had previously placed on the temporary 

 stone to the memory of his wife. On 

 the kerbing which surrounds the grave 

 is the inscription : " He loved birds and 

 green places and the wind on the heath, 

 and saw The brightness of the skirts of 

 God," The last words, it is hardly 

 necessary to say, are those he himself 

 quotes from Bryant at the conclusion of the 

 fine opening chapter of Birds and Man : — 



" It was the nobly expressed consolation 

 of an American poet, now dead, when standing 

 in the summer sunshine amid a fine prospect 

 of woods and hills, to think, when he remem- 

 bered the darkness of decay and the grave, 

 that he had beheld in nature, though but for 

 a moment, The brightness of the skirts of God." 



A record of the purely scientific work 

 of Mr. Hudson is furnished by ]\Ir. G. F. 

 Wilson in the Bookman's Journal of 

 January last. It begins in 1866 with ex- 

 plorations undertaken for the Smithsonian 

 Institute of Washington, U.S.A., and 

 includes twenty-seven contributions to 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London. 



Messrs. J. M. Dent and Sons will 

 publish this autumn the new and enlarged 

 edition of Lost British Birds which 

 Mr. Hudson was engaged upon at the 

 time of his death. The rough and 

 disconnected notes he left have been 

 copied, collated, and amphfied from letters 

 in her possession, by Miss Linda Gardiner, 

 who had assisted Mr. Hudson in preparing 

 the material. The original pamphlet 

 dealt with 13 birds ; the new book 

 includes 25 " Lost, Vanishing, and Rare 

 British Birds," with coloured plates by 

 ]\Ir. H. Gronvold. 



