Bird Notes and News 



23 



The many admirers of Miss Tsa Postgate's 

 bird-books will be 2;lad to hear that she has a 

 new book Robin in Khaki : a book ofbirdeens,'' 

 appearing before Christmas. Like her Robin 

 story, 3Iy Bird Love (G. Bell & Sons) it 

 suggests itself as a Christmas gift. 

 * * * 



The accomplished brush of Mr. Archibald 

 Thorburn has again generously supplied a 

 sympathetic subject for the R.S.P.B. Greeting 

 card for Christmas and the New Year. It is 

 entitled Sursum Corda, and the cards will be 

 ready as early as possible in November. Mr. 

 Trevor-Battye's touching verses written as an 

 inset for last year's card, have been set to 

 effective music by Miss S. Browning, with the 

 title "His Star for Thee" (Novello & Co.), 

 and should in this form have an extended 

 popularity. 



IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN. 



The Rev. G. Egerton-Warburton reports 

 the following curious incident occurring in 

 the Warburton Rectory garden : 



" I met with a Water-Rail one day la^t Jiine under 

 rather peculiar circumstances. In a part of the 

 garden that had been neglected this spring, my 

 brother and I were tidying up, and had been 

 working about there for a considerable time. I 

 had just cut round the edges of a small square bed 

 in the lawn, in the middle of which a tree was 

 planted, and had cut off the top of the long, weedy 

 grass that had grown up in it, and my brother 

 was following me with a fork to get out the grass 

 roots and weeds. He had been forking in the bed 

 for a minute or two, when, to his great astonishment, 

 out jumped a Water-Rail ; and the odd thing is that 

 instead of making off at once it squatted down on 

 the grass close by, and lay there long enough for 



him to call me to see it, then it got up deliberately 

 and ran off with long strides through an open gate. 

 " There are wet places in the old bed of the Mersey 

 within a short distance, but we have never at any 

 time seen or heard Water-Rails there. The part 

 of the garden where it had hidden was as dry as 

 possible ; the bed round the tree is only three'feet 

 square, and the bole of the tree in it is nine inches 

 in diameter. It seems extraordinary that the bird 

 should have been able to hide in it at all, and yet 

 more so that it should have lain quite still all the 

 time I was working round it with the shears, and 

 never move until it was actuallj' driven out with 

 a fork." 



IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN. 



Mr. H. D'Este East Avrites to the Society 

 (July, 1918): 



" A family of four young Great Tits, hatched out 

 quite lately from a nesting-box in this garden, 

 come on to our hands to take cut-up monkey nuts. 

 They also come into the rooms, one even settling 

 on my arm while we were at family prayers. One 

 morning four were feeding on a shallow silver cup, 

 which I was holding out of the window, while two 

 more were perched on my arm waiting their chance 

 of a bit of breakfast. Monkej' nuts have a great 

 fascination for nearly all the feathered tribe fre- 

 quenting this garden. Of course, they like rolled 

 oats and melted fat (in pre-War days) in cocoanut 

 shells, with a small hole cut at the side. Great, 

 Blue, and Coal Tits, Nuthatches, and Chaffinches 

 are adepts at catching nuts when thrown into the 

 air. Great and Blue Tits come into the bedroom, 

 and on to my wife's hand ; Nuthatches, Chaffinches, 

 Robins, and Hedge-Sparrows on to the carpet and 

 on the v,indow-sills. A Hedge-Sparrow has come 

 on our hands in the garden, but only when acting 

 as foster-motlier to a young Cuckoo. My wife can 

 do wonders with them. When she says to the 

 Nuthatch on the carpet, ' Now, Nutty, one, two 

 three, catch,' he more often than not catches the 

 nut before it falls to the floor." 



Bird-and-Tree Challenge Shield Competition. 



Essays from the Schools have, all things 

 considered, come in very well, and they arc 

 now in the hands of the judges. The report 

 will bo sent to all competing Schools as soon 

 as possible, and the main results will appear 

 in the next number of Bird Notes and News. 



At the celebration of " Arbor Daj^ " in 

 IMnladelphia tliis year, the first tree of a new 

 boulevard was planted by the Humane 

 Education Society and Animal Rescue 



League. It was stated that Pennsylvania 

 originall}^ planted 28,000,000 seedling trees 

 in its forest reserve and now has 7,000,000 

 on hand to give to France after the war. 



South Carolina is added to the li.st of 

 American States having an officially aji- 

 pointed Bird Day, the Governor's proclama- 

 tion stating it to be " especially important 

 that Ave educate our children and protect 

 our birds in order to foster our resources 

 in time of war." 



