42 



Bird Notes and News 



whatever existed. Complaint of these things 

 has never been more widespread or more bitter 

 than this year ; the increased turbulence of 

 children, owing to lack of control and discipline 

 during the absence of fathers and teachers, 

 probably accounting in part, and the Board of 

 Agriculture foUy for another large part. The 

 countryman, moreover, is no ornithologist ; 

 and it concerns him not at all to be told in a 

 lengthy notice in the coimty paper that it is 

 illegal to take a particular Bunting which he 

 never heard of, or the eggs of a variety of 

 Warbler v/hich he didn't know existed. 



In the case of both worker and child education 

 is imperative. In order to protect birds they 

 must know a little about them. Information 

 regarding their characteristics and habits and 

 ways must be circulated. Schoolchildren must 

 be taught something of the world of life of 

 which they themselves are a part, of the 

 correlation and co-operation and unity of its 

 members. Bird and Tree (Arbor Day) schemes. 

 or their equivalent, must bring light and air 

 into the whole elementary educational system. 

 If it is true, as many teachers assert, that the 

 time-table is already hopelessly overcrowded, 

 then some study less essential must be thrown 

 out, and opportunity afforded for the opening 

 of children's eyes and ears, the humanising of 

 their minds, and the sweetening of their souls. 



The outlook may not appear too promising. 

 Contradictions of war, calling forth magnificent 

 idealism and self-sacrifice on the one hand, 

 have on the other hand generated a certain 

 reckless destructiveness, a callous selfishness, 



a monstrous materiahsm that sees and under- 

 stands nothing beyond the needs, desires, and 

 intensive profits of to-day. Love for wild 

 nature, the veriest inkUng of its charm, is an 

 anachronism in a world seeking first the assur- 

 ance of a pound for every 15s. 6d. 



In many cases the breeding- places of the 

 birds are gone. Destruction of trees and 

 woodlands, at the call sometimes of the 

 trench, sometimes of blind and deaf officialism, 

 sometimes of the motor-hog, has been succeeded 

 by an outcry against the hedges where the 

 hated wild children of the countryside have 

 their homes. An aggressive utilitarianism 

 proclaims that man lives by bread alone ; 

 beauty is to be valued only at its market price. 

 Cinema and gramophone can supply all requisite 

 art and music. The living charm, the gracious 

 loveliness and wild harmony of meadow and 

 wood, and lane and heath, of the Britain that 

 has been defended in blood and anguish from 

 the German Hun, may yet perish at the hands 

 of blunderers at home unless her people resolve 

 that it shall not be so. 



Beyond the preservation of the birds of Great 

 Britain come questions in which trade and 

 humanity (hand in hand with science) are at 

 grips ; questions such as the spoliation of the 

 world to suit the greed of feather-mongers, 

 and the turning of Antarctic islands into a 

 shambles to grease the palm of the trader in oil. 

 On both these matters protests loud and stern 

 have been raised for many years. It is time 

 for action. 



Economic Ornithology. 



THE FOOD OF WILD BIRDS. 



In the Journal of the Board of Agriculture 

 for March, 1919, Dr. W. E. CoUinge continues 

 his " Investigations on the Food of Wild Birds," 

 computed by the " volumetric " method. The 

 species taken this time are the Jackdaw, Star- 

 ling, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Great Tit, 

 Blue Tit, Song Thrush, Fieldfare ; and in 

 giving his report and diagrams, the writer 

 observes that definite standards are now 

 proposed, but that in future investigations 

 regarding the same species the question of the 

 increase or decrease of the species must be 

 borne in mind, since a bird becomes injurious 

 when, as the result of a great increase in 

 numbers, there is an insufficiency of its natural 



food. This has happened, he says, in the case 

 of the Starling, which has enormously increased 

 during the past 15 or 16 years. Dr. ColUnge 

 holds, however, that even so the Starling is less 

 injurious than the Rook, for whose sins it would 

 appear to be largely answerable. 



" Like the Rook, the Starling has gradually been 

 forced to supplement its diet by cereals and fruit. . • 

 If it were considerably reduced in numbers this species 

 would economically prove a most useful and valuable 

 bird, where at present it must be classed as an injurious 

 one." 



Dr. CoUinge gives percentages of the foods 

 of these two much-debated birds, showing 

 the main injuries by the Rook to consist of 

 35 per cent, of cereals and 13 of potatoes and 

 roots, as against 23 per cent, of injurious 



