Bird Notes and News 



39 



The naturalist who writes under the well- 

 known pseudonym of "East Sussex" has 

 some pleasant remarks about Bird and Tree 

 work in an article on Birds-nesting in the 

 Globe (April 28th, 1914). " Boys," he says, 

 " will always be bird-nesters, and legislative 

 measures to stop them are not much of a 

 success. But there is birds-nesting and 

 birds-nesting — the old and destructive, the 

 new and intelligent." 



" Of late the Royal Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds and a few more enlightened 

 school teachers have been trying to teach 

 country children to study instead of perse- 

 cute the birds, and one hopes that the bird- 

 nesting boy is beginning to see that there 

 are possibilities beyond egg-sucking in his 

 springtide calling. This new method of 

 dealing with the bird-nesting boy is a great 

 deal more likely to achieve its object than 

 all the legislation in the world. 



"He is to be encouraged to go birds- 

 nesting, instead of forbidden to touch the 

 eggs, and to regard the joy of finding them 

 as a fitting reward for his labours. It is an 

 appeal to his better nature, and it is hoped 

 that by helping him to learn about the rare 

 and more useful birds he will in time 

 regard them, and the commoner sorts as 

 well, with their nests and eggs, as some- 

 thing more interesting than mere objects 

 upon which to exercise his idle powers of 

 destruction and wanton cruelty. 



' ' And the writer can vouch for it that 

 the schoolboy is not such a very bad subject 

 to impress if you take him the right way. 

 His ignorance of the things about him is at 

 present extraordinary." 



All who have read Essays written by Bird 

 and Tree Cadets will agree with "East 

 Sussex " that many schoolboys and girls 

 have in them the making of bright and 

 sympathetic young naturalists, and all who 

 are familiar with the country will support 

 his statement as to the astounding and 

 deplorable ignorance of country birds and 



country flowers among country children- 

 and not children only. 



In "An Introduction to Practical 

 Geography," by Messrs. Hugh Richardson 

 and A. T. Simmons (Macmillan & Co.), are 

 some useful and practical remarks on the 

 "Use of the Country," addressed more 

 particularly to town children ; the law of 

 trespass and rights of way, the duties with 

 regard to hay-fields, preserves, the closing 

 of gates and non-damaging of fences, etc. 

 The amenities cannot be taught too soon ; 

 and it is pretty certain that the boys and 

 girls who learn respect for Birds and Trees 

 will learn, with that respect, to have regard 

 for the farmer's crops, the keeper's cover, 

 the gorse and heather of the common. 

 Thus there will be no longer need for the 

 landowner to close his park against the 

 destructive holiday-rambler, and for the 

 Spectator to protest against beauty-spots 

 being treated as places for the shooting of 

 rubbish by trippers. 



IN THE COURTS. 



Shooting a Raven. — At Lymington, on 

 May 9th, James Harvey, shepherd, of Lisle 

 Court, South Baddesley, pleaded guilty to 

 shooting a hen Raven. He said he thought 

 it was a Crow, and afterwards sold it to a 

 gentleman in Lymington for 5s. Ordered to 

 pay the costs, 7s. (The Ravens of the south 

 coast, from Devon to Kent, would have 

 been exterminated before now but for the 

 efforts of the R.S.P.B., who employ 

 Watchers to guard the one nesting pair. 

 The prosecution was instituted on their 

 information. The name was not stated of 

 the Lymington gentleman, whose action in 

 buying the bird was as illegal as that of the 

 shepherd in killing it, nor whether he, too, 

 thought it was a Crow.) 



Another Bittern Shot. — At East Harling 

 (Norfolk), Edward Petch, gamekeeper, was 



