Bird Notes and News 



his absence from the Society's Annual 

 Meeting, says : 



" I wish a special point could be made 

 regarding the many dangerous paragraphs 

 and letters which are now appearing in the 

 Press of the country recommending the 

 wholesale destruction of Sparrows by school 

 children and soldiers. Last year the same 

 tiling was done, with the result that thousands 

 upon thousands of Warblers, Flycatchers, 

 Hedge-sparrows, and other useful insect- 

 eating birds were destroyed by the ignorant, 

 and classed as ' sparrows.' We all know 

 what it led to — the destruction in a whole- 

 sale mamier of valuable food crops by 

 insects ; in some districts the half -grown 

 plants of the Brassica family were completely 

 Aviped out. The indiscriminate destruction 

 of the Sparrow in spring is doing real harm, 

 for the young are fed almost entirely on 

 insect food." 



After the plague of antler- moth caterpillars 

 in the north of England (including Cumber- 

 land) last ,year, the Board of Agriculture 

 Inspectors observed that : " As regards the 

 control of this caterpillar, the value that 

 accrues from the presence of Rooks and 

 StarHngs cannot be over-estimated." The 

 Cumberland War Agricultural Committee is 

 now making an effort to exterminate the 

 Rook by ordering owners and tenants of 

 land and of shootings " to kill, or cause to be 

 killed, the Rooks on all lands occupied by 

 you," with the addendum that if this is not 



done their own emissary may " enter into 

 or upon such plantations and lands, and kill 

 or take the same without further notice." 

 Presuming this to apply, in spite of its 

 grammar, to the birds and not to the planta- 

 tions, it may be asked. Who is right, the 

 Board's scientific Inspectors or its local 

 vicegerent 1 



From many other letters received by the 

 Society may be selected one which gives 

 both sides of the question. A Kentish fruit- 

 farmer writes : 



" Some benefactor has sent me your 

 excellent paper, marking comments on the 

 ca^terpillar plague of last year — which wij)ed 

 out almost my entire apple crop on a dozen 

 acres. In former years I had groaned at the 

 ravages of Blackbirds and Jays, which dam- 

 aged all the finest fruit on that side of my land 

 bordered by a wood. But while they slew 

 their thousands and I wasted much time and 

 powder scaring them, insect pests have slain 

 then tens of thousands and seriously inter- 

 fered with the growth of the trees. It seems 

 to me that your best ^way of converting the 

 agriculturist, especially fruit-growers, is by 

 advertising some really cheap and effective 

 means of scaring without killing." 



This need was pointed out clearly in the 

 useful pamphlet " Farm, Garden and Birds," 

 written by practical men and published by 

 the Society in 1912. Most scares in use are 

 primitive in the extreme, and science has 

 done nothing to assist the grower. 



Bird-and-Tree Competitions. 



A LARGE number of successful Bird and Tree 

 Festivals have been held in the last three 

 months : and entries have come in well for 

 the 1918 Competition. This year, through 

 the welcome co-operation of the authori- 

 ties, Liverpool City joins in the Lancashire 

 Competition. 



As a considerable number of Schools are 

 entering the Competition this j^ear for the 

 first time, and as Teams generally are young 

 and often without the leadersliip of older 

 boys and girls having experience of the 

 work, a few hints to Cadets may help them 

 in the new study. 



Note -taking is invaluable. It makes 

 observation definite and fixes it in the 

 memory. Accuracy is the first point to be 

 considered, and the record should be clear 

 and simple. But each entry should mean 

 something, some bit of knowledge newly 

 acquired — something the Cadet has seen, 

 not what he imagines or supposes ; and 

 not an obvious fact, such as a statement 

 that a tree has leaves or that a bird has 

 feathers, but the size and shape of those 

 leaves, and the colour of those feathers. In 

 taking note of a bird the size should be 

 indicated : smaller than a Sparrow, about 

 the size of a Sparrow, as big as a Thrush, 



