Bird Notes and News 



61 



R. Portal, D.S.O., Miss B. E. RawlingB, iVIiss A. F. Smith, 

 Lieut. -Colonel R. C. 8 wan, Dr. A. Barry Sykee. 



Members : Alfred Chas. Adams, Miss Barber, Mrs. 

 Kathbono Bolton, Eric J. Brown, Miss Chilton, Mrs. 

 Hamilton, Rev. John Heaton, Miss M. Horton, G. R. 

 Jackman, Miss A. F. Kindermann, Charles Osenton, 

 MissE. L. Seaver, Miss Lucy I. Simpson, Archer Vassall, 

 M.A., J. B. Wallis, R. G. Warder, John Wilcock, W. B. 

 Wil6on< 



" FIGHT FOR THE BIRDS " FUND. 



In order to canvass Members of Parliament 

 and voters on behalf of the promised Govern- 

 ment Bill to prohibit the importation of wild 

 birds' plumage, and to provide propagandist 

 literature, a special " Fight for the Birds "' 

 Fund has been opened by the Royal Society for 

 the Protection of Birds. It started with a 

 donation of .^100 from a giver who wishes 

 to remain anonymous, and who has since 

 generousl}' doubled the amount; and various 

 other donations have been received, which 

 will be duly announced. Although the Bill is 

 as yet only in draft, it may be said that it 

 will in no way interfere with the trade in 

 ostrich feathers or with the legitimate importa- 

 tion of birdskins for scientific purposes. 



THE PENGUINS OF MACQUARIE. 



The long-continued efforts of the Society on 

 behalf of the persecuted Penguins of Macquarie 

 Island have at last borne the fruit desired. 

 It is announced that the Government of 

 Tasmania has refused to renew the lease of the 

 island to Mr. Joseph Hatch and his oil company, 

 which for years has been massacring the birds 

 at the rate of a million and a half a year for the 

 sole purpose of boiling them down for their oil. 

 It may be remembered that as long ago as 

 1905 a resolution carried at the International 

 Ornithological Congress, at the instigation of 

 the Society, was cabled to the Tasmanian 

 Government protesting against the business ; 

 but unhappily the lease was later on renewed. 

 Letters of remonstrance and appeal have since 

 been addressed by the R.S.P.B. to the New 

 Zealand and Tasmanian Goveinments, and 

 to the Prime Minister of the Connuonwealth. 

 The subject was again brouglit forward last 

 March at the Annual Meeting of the R.S.P.B. ; 

 Mr. Mattingley, the Society's representative 

 in Australia, offered his services to go over and 

 investigate the facts ; Mr. Pycraft ventilated 

 the matter in the Press ; Mr. H. G. Wells 

 made it the subject of a powerful passage in 

 The Undying Fire ; Sir Douglas Mawson 

 spoke strongly upon it })efore the Zoological 

 Society of London ; Mr. Cherry-Garrard roused 



public opinion through TAc^'t//;^*' and the Spec- 

 tator. At last the hideous slaughter is brought 

 to an end. 



" We venture to hope," says The Times 

 (December 29th, 1919), " that a further step 

 will be taken, and that means will be found to 

 make Macquarie Island an inviolable sanctuary 

 for Antarctic life." 



BIRD PROTECTION IN EGYPT. 



A strongly-written foreword on the need for 

 protection of Birds in Egypt, from the pen 

 of Major Stanley Flower, Director of the 

 Zoological Service in connection with the 

 Ministry of Public Works, prefaces a valuable 

 and painfully interesting pamphlet on " Bird 

 Liming in Lower Egypt," just published 

 by the Government Press at Cairo. The 

 writer is Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote, F.L.S. (a 

 member of the Council of the R.S.P.B. before 

 Egypt secured his services), who gives his 

 personal knowledge of this abominable practice 

 which, though illegal, is still profitably carried 

 on and involves the destruction with extreme 

 cruelty of immense quantities of charming and 

 useful small birds. It is largely due to F.-M. 

 Lord Kitchener that the protection law exists, 

 and it has resulted. Major Flower states, " in 

 a most gratifying increase in the numbers of 

 many s])ecies of useful and beautiful birds, 

 especially the Rufous Warbler, the Hoopoe, 

 and the Buff-backed Heron." It is to be 

 hoped that the efforts of the Director and Mr. 

 Bonhote will effectually convict the local 

 authorities of their folly and inhumanity 

 and save the migratory birds " which would 

 othei'wise benefit the whole of their country." 

 England will be able to speak more freely still 

 when bird-linung and the use of decoy-birds 

 are prohibited in this country. 



OBITUARY. 



Mr. James Bigwood, a Vice-President of the 

 Society since J 896, whose death has to be 

 recorded, will bo gratefully remembered for 

 his work in Parliament when in charge of the 

 Bill, now the Act, of 1890, giving County 

 Councils power to protect birds beyond the 

 close-time period. Tbc Bill had a somewhat 

 stormy career, and underwent considerable 

 changes after its first introduction, framed by ^ 

 Mr. Montagu Sharpc, in 1895 ; when finally 

 in sight of port it would have bpen wrecked 

 by Irish opposition but for Mr. Bigwood's 

 ])roposition that Ireland be omitted from its 

 operation. Mr. Bigwood also introduced, in 



