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Bird Notes and News 



Notes. 



At tlie time when Britisli Bird Protection laws 

 are being considered with a view to amend- 

 ment, it is interesting to find Ohio's attractive 

 bird magazine, Blue Bird, publishing a history 

 of Bird Preservation in the United States. 

 It appears that the first protective law was 

 passed by New York in 1791, but this was 

 for game birds only. Massachusetts showed a 

 fine Puritan spirit when in 1818 she forbade 

 " the wanton destruction at improper times " 

 of " birds which are useful and profitable to the 

 citizens either as articles of food or instruments 

 in the hands of Providence to destroy many 

 noxious insects, grubs, and caterpillars." But 

 it was New Jersey which first sought actual 

 legal protection for " small and harmless 

 birds," and her law included only some twenty 

 common birds and their eggs. Not until 

 1877 were sea-birds and birds of fine plumage 

 specifically protected, Florida leading the way 

 in order to save the remnant of her murdered 



Egrets. 



* * * 



Naturalists familiar through Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney's work on " The Gannet," or Mr. H. K. 

 Job's " Wild Wings," with the ornithological 

 importance of Bird Rock and neighbouring 

 isles in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, will rejoice 

 that at last the Magdalen Islands, together 

 with Perce Rock and Bonaventure Island, 

 have been made Bird Sanctuaries by the 

 Canadian Government. Their vast colonies of 

 Gannets, Auks, Puffins, and other sea-birds are 

 thus saved from the eggers and the " sports- 

 men " who have seriously threatened them. 

 Ten years ago the R.S.P.B. approached the 

 High Commissioner of Canada on this subject ; 

 but the Canadian Government has grown much 

 more active of late. 



sj: :); ^ 



Mr. Ludlow Griscom's " War Impressions of 

 French Bird Life," recorded in Natural History 

 (Journal of the American Museum of Natural 

 History) are in entire agreement with English 

 observers as regards the persistence of wild 

 birds in the war zone. In a half-ruined village, 

 constantly bombed, shelled, and gassed, he 

 found Swallows flying up and down the street, 

 House-Sparrows on the roofs, while " in the 

 gardens of the old chateau was a mountain-ash 

 tree laden with fruit. Here by the light of the 

 setting sun, with the air pulsating with sound, 



three beautiful Bullfinches were peacefully 

 feeding on the crimson berries, heedless of three 

 Fokkers which droned directly overhead. Un- 

 perturbed and unhurried they finished their 

 meal." The wren sang in naked rafters 

 in the morning, after a night of artillery fire. 

 A Robin sang from a bush amid bursting shells, 

 retiring down among the roots, as quiet as a 

 mouse, with each concussion, then working its 

 way upward cautiously till the next shell 



screamed. 



* * * 



There is ground for fear that the return 

 of the gamekeeper means renewed persecution 

 of those birds which the majority of game- 

 keepers wage war upon — the Owls and Kestrels, 

 the Jays and Magpies, the Mistle-Thrushes and 

 Woodpeckers. Our larger birds have had some 

 chance to re-establish themselves during the 

 past four years. Is it not time, suggests one 

 writer, to penalise severely the killing of birds 

 that benefit agriculture ; at least of any 



creature that destroys rats ? 



* * * 



Woodpeckers should be keenly protected 

 as friends of the forester, and, together with 

 Nuthatches and Wrynecks and Tree-creepers, 

 should be encouraged in all woodlands by the 

 provision of nesting-boxes. Similarly, intelli- 

 gent gardeners will cultivate the presence of 

 Tits, Flycatchers, and other species by pro- 

 viding nesting-boxes, and by food supplies 

 in winter. The R.S.P.B. continues to supply 

 the best of all boxes, the " Tree-hole," with 

 its ingenious borings to reproduce the actual 

 borings of the bird ; and, by preventing the 

 dumping of German boxes, hopes still to ensure 

 " British homes for British birds." 



" The great secret of having a garden well 

 stocked with birds lies in the provision of 

 attractive nesting-places," writes Mr. E. E. 

 Pettitt in Land and Water (August 28th, 1919). 

 " Amongst our feathered friends there is close 

 searching and much competition for suitable 

 holes, so it is nearly a matter of certainty that 

 well-placed boxes will be occupied. In the 

 winter months tits and wrens use them to sleep 

 in, and seek shelter in them from the weather 

 at its worst. With a little provision and care 

 we can make of most gardens veritable un- 

 enclosed aviaries." 



