24 



Bird Notes and News 



The Governor of the Province of Tarragona 

 (says the Bulletin of the Society for the 

 Protection of Animals and Plants of Cata- 

 lunya, Barcelona) has issued a circular to 

 the local authorities throughout the Province, 

 reminding them that the Royal Decree of 

 1905 appoints a Tree Festival to bo observed 

 annually, in order to inculcate the value 

 of trees and to encourage the planting of 

 them. It may be hoped that the Festival 

 will soon be made to embrace Birds, as is 

 now the general rule in other countries. 



Greeting Card, 1918-19 



Writing in the Bulletin of the French Bird- 

 Protection Society on the great destruction 

 of birds during the last two winters, not only 

 by the cold, but by country people who took 

 advantage of the tameness of the starving 

 Thrushes and Robins to kill them, M. Louis 

 Ternier adds : 



" I will conclude with a consoling fact. Every- 

 where I have travelled in the coimtry for some time 

 past, all who are interested in birds tell me that the 

 children destroy nests much less than of old. Bird- 

 nesting seems no longer to absorb their interests. 

 It is very certain that the teachers have contributed 

 to tliis happy change. The necessity for protecting 

 the birds ought to form part of the programme of 

 all our schools." 



PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES. 



" A Country Parson " writes : 



" One of my parishioners recently became pos- 

 sessed of a British wild bird in a cage, and I, knowing 

 such proceedings to be as infectious as the Spanish 

 influenza, decided to efTect its release. In order to 

 do this I sent an ' S.O.S.' post card to the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, and received by 

 return of post some leaflets and with them a Vjook 

 of ' promissory notes ' to the effect that the signa- 

 tory would not keep a British wild bird in a cage and 

 would try to persuade his or her friends not to do so 

 either. I then went round my small parish and got 

 almost every parishioner to sign one of them, with 

 the result that the offender under the pressure of 

 public opinion decided to release the bird. 



Moral. — If in every parish some humanitarian 

 would go round with one of these books of ' pro- 

 missory notes ' (to be obtained gratis from the 

 above-mentioned Society) tlie caging of wild birds 

 industry could be quickly stamped out, since when 

 there is no demand there will be no supply. To 

 fight any one tyranny is to fight all, so that to fight 

 this phase of the tyranny of humanity over the 

 lower animal creation is to fight indirectly the 

 tyranny of one nationality over another, the 

 tyranny we are fighting in this war." 



Ready in November. 



"SURSUM CORDA": 



The Skylark's Message. 



Specially Designed and Painted by 



MR. ARCHIBALD THORBURN. 



and Reproduced in Colour with Appropriate Verses. 



One Card 4d., by Post 4id. 

 One D«zen Cards 4/-, by Post 4/3. 



Copies may also be had of '' Behind the Lines' (Robin), 

 painted by Mr. Thorbum ; verses by Mr. A.Trevor-Battye 

 or Miss Isa Postgate ; and of " The Whilethroat's Song.'* 



Save the Birds ! 

 Save the Food-Crops ! 



" The best Crop Protector is the 

 Insectivorous Bird.' 



C. Gordon Hewitt, D.Sc. 



BIRD-ALLY 

 POSTCARDS 



CERIES of 12, each with quotation 

 as to value of Birds in Agricul- 

 ture, from Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, 

 Dr. Gordon Hewitt, Dr. Hornaday, 

 Sir Harry Johnston, Edward Newman, 

 M. Edmond Perrier, and others. 



Twelve Cards, assorted, 6d. ; 3 packets, 1/3, 

 post free ; 1 00 Cards, 3/6. 



Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 



23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, S.W.I. 



Bird Notes and News (issued quarterly) will 

 be sent post free to any address for is. per annum, 

 payable in advance ; single numbers, .'M. 



To Members of the Society subscribing 58. and 

 upwards per annum it is forwaided gratis and post 

 free. 



Printed by Witherby & Co., 326, High Holborn, W.C 1 , and 

 published by the Rliyal Socibty for the Protection of BiKub, 

 23, Queen Anne ;> Gate, S.W. . 



