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Bird Notes and News 



author for so many winters. They have 

 commemorated him in a singularly appro- 

 priate mamier, and one that IVIr. Hudson 

 himself, with all his disHke of monumental 

 shams and pretences, might well have 

 chosen had he looked for any memorial 

 in the Duchy. Near Zennor there is a 

 certain block of stone on which he loved 

 to sit, looking at the view of the county 

 to which ill-health had driven him and 

 which he loved in many of its aspects. 

 The stone had come to be known as 

 " Hudson's seat," and now on it is carved 

 the simple inscription, " W. H. Hudson 

 often came here." 



OBITUARY 



With great regret the Society has to 

 record the death of Mr. J. H. Allchin, 

 Curator of Maidstone Museum, who has 

 been for twenty-eight years Hon. Secretary 

 for Maidstone. He took keen interest 

 in the subject, was an active and sympa- 

 thetic worker, and frequently lectured 

 in the town and district, while the bird 

 room at the Museum bore testimony 

 to his ornithological knowledge and 

 enthusiasm. He practically made the 

 Museum what it is to-day, one of the 

 finest in the south of England, and he 

 was also a keen antiquary and an accom- 

 plished artist. Mr, Allchin was one of 

 the first observers to note the decrease 

 of Swallows in England, and after 

 careful investigations brought the question 

 before a Conference in connection with 

 the R.S.P.B. in 1898. In consequence 

 of his paper, resolutions were passed 

 urging County Councils to give the 

 fullest protection to Swallows and 

 Martins and their eggs, and suggesting 

 a strong protest to the Governments of 

 France and Italy against the destruction 

 of migrating birds. 



Mr. Allchin, who was 72 years of age, 

 had been in failing health for some 

 time and died on December 9th. 



The death, on December 12th, of the 

 Rev. Canon Theodore Wood, Vicar of 

 St. Mary Magdalene, Wandsworth 

 Common, removes a popular lecturer and 

 writer on natural history. Son of one of 

 the pioneers of humane Nature-study, 



the Rev. J. G. Wood, Canon Wood 

 specialised on beetles, but he wrote 

 several books on birds, including an 

 admirable little volume on " Our Bird 

 Allies," and he was proud of the number 

 of species which he had observed in his 

 garden and on the adjacent common. 



EARL LOREBURN 



For many years a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, the 

 late venerable ex-Lord Chancellor, Lord 

 Loreburn, was especially associated with 

 the campaign against the use of the pole- 

 trap, and he may be regarded as the 

 Father of the Act prohibiting the use of 

 this detestable invention, although it was 

 actually introduced and steered through 

 the House of Commons by Earl (then 

 Mr. Sydney) Buxton. Lord Loreburn died 

 on November 30th at Kingsdown House, 

 Kent, in his 78th year. As Sir Robert 

 Threshie Reid he was one of the most 

 keen and uncompromisingly honest of 

 lawyers, and as Lord Chancellor, com- 

 ments the Times, he was not surpassed 

 by any of the men whom he followed or 

 preceded ' ' in sterling and straightforward 

 character and in single-minded resolve to 

 administer the purest justice." 



PROTECTION OF WILD LIFE 



Arising out of the International 

 Congress for the Protection of Nature, 

 held in Paris in the summer of 1923, a 

 small and informal conference was held 

 recently at the Natural History Museum 

 to discuss the suggestion put forward 

 at the Congress that an International 

 Committee should be formed with the 

 object of fostering Nature Reserves and 

 protecting animal and plant life through- 

 out the world. It was decided that the 

 Society for the Promotion of Nature 

 Reserves should invite the Societies in 

 the United Kingdom which are interested 

 in the matter to send representatives 

 to a meeting to be held on January 14th, 

 1924, when the desirability of consti- 

 tuting such a Committee and the forma- 

 tion of a Joint Committee for the United 

 Kingdom will be considered. The pro- 

 position is that this Committee should 



