34 



Bird Notes and News 



A New Zealand Forest and Bird Protec- 

 tion Society has been successfully organized 

 for the conservation of Wild Nature. Its 

 objects are the inculcation among the public, 

 especially children, of an intelligent interest 

 in native flora and fauna ; the preservation 

 of native forests ; and the assistance of any 



movement, public or private, for protecting 

 forest land. The need for such an associa- 

 tion in New Zealand has long been felt, 

 and all members of the R.S.P.B. will 

 heartily wish it prosperity. The Hon. Sec. 

 is Mr. H. G. Ell, M.P., Christchurch, 

 N.Z. 



Notes. 



One feature of the Bird Protection move- 

 ment in Canada should commend itself to 

 those interested in the matter on this side. 

 With a view to suppressing the wanton 

 destruction of nests and birds by boys in 

 and around the city, the assistance of the 

 Boy Scouts is being secured. " It seems to 

 me," says Dr. Gordon Hewitt, " that as pro- 

 tectors of bird-life and as policemen, the 

 Boy Scouts would furnish an unrivalled 

 auxiliary." There can be no doubt of the 

 advantage to both in associating the two 

 movements, or as to the sympathy of the 

 Chief Scout, General Baden Powell, with 

 the principles of Bird Protection. In 

 England, Mr. Oliver Pike and other writers 

 have sought to strengthen the link ; but 

 there is still wanted a definite, practical and 

 recognised co-operation. Three or four 

 years ago the Council of the R.S.P.B. offered 

 to extend to Scouts the Bird and Tree Chal- 

 lenge Shield Competitions if a plan of 

 operation could be satisfactorily organized, 

 and the offer was accepted by the Scouts 

 Council. But the scheme unfortunately got 

 no further. 



* * * * 



The gradual " uglification " of England 

 in deference to motorists, farmers, and 

 county councils, is calling forth more 

 and more the protests of those who love 



the old England of unkept hedgerow, un- 

 lopped tree, singing birds, and abundant 

 wild-flowers. What other country could 

 show such hedges and hedge-banks, what 

 country could listen to such exquisite bird- 

 music? Now three destroyers are let loose 

 on the land, says Lord William Cecil in a 

 letter to the Times : the flower-collector who 

 has nearly rooted out the primrose and 

 the foxglove ; the up-to-date agriculturist, 

 who fells all trees and abolishes hedgerows; 

 and the county council, which mows the 

 roadside so that not even the humblest 

 flower can seed and perpetuate its charm. 

 " We spend thousands of pounds on culti- 

 vating the often hideous exotics of other 

 climates where no one can see them, and 

 will not spend pennies to perpetuate the far 

 greater natural beauties of our own country 

 where all the world can admire them." 

 As a fourth factor comes the motorist with 

 his dust and stench, for whom banks must 

 be scraped and trees cut and lopped. From 

 an eastern county a correspondent writes: 

 " Every farmer cuts down hedges to the 

 ground, not a part is left. The country is 

 bare of hedge and tree, and trees are lopped 

 into brown stalks." Some little time ago 

 Lady Laura Ridding put up the same com- 

 plaint from Hampshire. In parts of Devon 

 the celebrated lanes are reduced to a dusty 



