22 



Bird Notes and News 



Notes. 



The U.S.A. National Academy of Sciences 

 has awarded to Mr. Frank M. Chapman, 

 of the American Museum of Zoology, the 

 first Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, to be 

 bestowed annually on a naturalist of any 

 country for pre-eminence in zoology or 

 paliBontology. Mr. Chapman is editor of 

 Bml-Lore,a,nd an Hon. Fellow of the R.S.P.B. 



5|: * * 



M. Adolphe Burdet (also an Hon. Fellow), 

 whose visit to this country for the purpose 

 of assisting the Society with the erection of 

 bird-rests at the lighthouses, will be remem- 

 bered, has been giving a series of 32 lectures 

 to interned French in Switzerland, on birds 

 necessary to agriculture. An interesting 

 letter from him is quoted in the Bulletin of 

 the Ligue Fran9aise pour la Protection des 

 Oiseaux, in which he says that the greater 

 number of his hearers, representing almost 

 every district in France, were in sympathy 

 with his views as to the need for Bird- 

 Protection. 



* * * 



Lectures on Birds are greatly appreciated 

 at British military camps and hospitals, 

 as has been proved at the various lectures 

 to soldiers in Hampshire given by the Rev. 

 J. E. Kelsall. The R.S.P.B. lends lantern 

 slides gratis to such lecturers ; and also is 

 prepared to lend a lecture with slides, 

 " Birds on the Land," to Allotment Associa- 

 tions. 



* * * 



" Thus [by the kill-the-bird campaign] 

 the way is being prepared for insect plagues 

 and devastations to smother the land and 

 to devour every green thing."— Bird Notes 

 and News, Spring, 1917. 



" Gardeners are much tormented this year, 

 for not only is most of the fruit missing, but 

 both trees and plants are smothered with 

 vermin." — Daily Telegraph, July 11th, 1918 



" As it is so difficult to obtain food for 

 birds in winter," writes C. W. Benson to 

 the Society, " it is a good plan to collect 

 beech-nuts. Last winter I fed the Chaf- 

 iinches in this way, also a Brambling. When 



the snow is thick, birds cannot find the nuts 

 on the ground. If shelled and chopped up, 

 they are eaten by Tits and Robins." 

 * * * 



A correspondent of Country Life tells a 

 curious story of a nest found inside a log 

 of elm wood. The log was cut from the 

 centre of the tree and was to all appearance 

 solid, and selected as perfectly sound for 

 use in connection with pile-driving. After 

 the first blov/ or two of the pile-driver a 

 piece flew off the side, revealing a cavity 

 about 6-ins. in diameter, and in the cavity 

 the remains of a bird's nest and six pale 

 blue black-spotted eggs. It is supposed 

 that the nest had been made in a small 

 hollow, overgrown by the wood, and hidden 

 for sixty or seventy years. Another cor- 

 respondent of the same paper records the 

 extraordinary find of a Flycatcher's nest 

 containing five young Cuckoos almost fledged . 



* * * 



An interesting testimony to the increase of 

 the Buzzard is given by a member of th? 

 Society, who writes : 



" During a recent visit in Mid-Wales it gave me 

 much pleasure to hear that the Buzzard has now 

 re-established itself, not only in the district I was 

 in, but in some of the adjoining counties, and it had 

 become quite a common occurrence to see pairs of 

 them every day on the surrounding hills. Their 

 reappearance is attributable to the absence of the 

 irresponsible gunner as well as the local gamekeeper." 



Also the collector, perhaps the bird's greatest 

 enemy. The breeding-season likewise fur- 

 nished good news of Kites in Wales and 

 Bitterns in Norfolk. 



* * * 



Ml*. J. E. Harting has translated and pub- 

 lishes for the benefit of Red Cross funds, a 

 charming apostrophe to the Pigeons of Paris 

 written by M. Pierre Amedee Pichot. Like 

 those of London, the Paris Pigeons have 

 suffered much from curtailed rations ; unlike 

 them, they have been kept in terror and 

 commotion by shot and shell ; but M. Pichot 

 looks to the time of the birds' return : 



Quand, portant dans le bee la branche de Laurier, 

 Vous nous annoncerez la fin de nos miseres 

 Par un brin d'Olivier. 



