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Bird Notes and News 



RESERVOIRS AS BIRD- 

 SANCTUARIES 



The desirability of making all Water 

 Companies' reservoirs sanctuaries for wild 

 birds was touched upon in the Spring 

 Number of Bird Notes and News, 

 when special reference was made to 

 the shooting which hitherto has been 

 permitted at the Walthamstow reservoir. 

 With this exception the Metropolitan 

 Water Board's reservoirs have been 

 practically protected areas, since they 

 are of course private property and no 

 shooting is allowed ; and for three years 

 the Society has been striving to secure 

 the same privilege for the birds at 

 Walthamstow and Clapton, the reply 

 each year seeming to indicate that the 

 feeling of the Board was veering in their 

 favour. The only shooting permitted 

 was by private parties on Saturday 

 afternoons in autumn and winter, but 

 this was sufficient at least to endanger 

 and frighten away many of the most 

 interesting species. An extraordinary 

 number of birds haunt the place in both 

 summer and winter, keen observers having 

 arrived at a total of some eighty species 

 seen on the water and the lands adjacent, 

 including some whose names would be 

 as strange as the sight of them to most 

 Londoners and who are seldom imagined 

 as visitors to the metropolitan area. 



The Society's activities were first 

 aroused on the subject by the London 

 Natural History Society, who have all 

 through given valuable help. In May 

 of the present year a circular letter 

 was sent, together with Bird Notes 

 AND News, to all the members of the 

 Water Board, renewing the petition and 

 pointing out that the area might con- 

 ceivably become the finest bird-sanctuary 

 in the vicinity of London. The Selborne 

 Society's attention was also drawn to 

 the matter, probably through a paper 

 read at a meeting of the L.N.H.S. last 

 April by a keen local bird-observer (Mr. 

 R. W. Pethen), and they arranged for a 

 deputation to wait on the Committee of 

 the Board who had the matter in hand. 



The deputation was received on July 4th, 

 when representatives of the R.S.P.B. 

 and the Essex Field Club were also 

 present; but happily eloquence was not 

 needed and those in attendance were 

 at once informed that the Committee 

 had agreed to accede to the request. 

 The following highly satisfactory letter, 

 dated July 4th, was received by the 

 R.S.P.B. from the Clerk to the Board 

 (Mr. G. P. Stringer) :— 



" Adverting to previous correspondence 

 wliicli has taken place between yourself and 

 the Board with reference to the shooting of 

 wild fowl, etc., on the Board's waters, I have 

 much pleasure in formally notifying you that 

 it has been decided, as a result of representations 

 which have been made by your Society and 

 other kindred societies, to abandon the practice 

 of shooting wild fowl, etc., on the Board's 

 Reservoirs." 



The Water Board and the public may 

 both be congratulated on thus securing 

 this fine sanctuary, and there is little 

 doubt that the public will express their 

 cordial appreciation by assisting the 

 keeper in every way to preserve and 

 protect the birds of the reservoirs and 

 neighbourhood. 



THE POLE-TRAP 



The following letter from Sir Montagu 

 Sharpe (dated August 18th) appeared in 

 the Daily Telegraph, August 21st, 1923 : 



In to-day's issue of your paper it is reported 

 that " a splendid specimen of a Golden Eagle 

 has been caught in a trap at Tighnabruaich, 

 Argyllshire." It would be interesting to know 

 whether the bird was caught in a pole-trap, a 

 most cruel instrument, fixed to a pole in a 

 clearing, holding in its teeth the legs of the 

 alighting bird, which flutters and struggles 

 in agony until death, or a gamekeeper chancing 

 to pass by, ends its sufferings. It is illegal to 

 affix a pole-trap, but detection, followed by a 

 prosecution, is not always an easy matter to 

 bring about. I regret to say that it has been 

 reported to the Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds that this trap is far too common in 

 parts of Scotland. 



