Bird Notes and News 



43 



Notes. 



It is most earnestly hoped that subscribers to 

 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 

 will keep up their payments this year so 

 far as possible, in order that the work of 

 the Society may be maintained and no 

 step backward be necessary. Owing to the 

 slender yearly income, the invested capital 

 is very small ; and a decrease in funds at the 

 present time would not only starve effort in 

 many directions where immediate action is 

 needed, but would necessarily destroy to a 

 large extent the effect of past labours and 

 expenditure. It may also be remembered 

 that the provision of work, and payment, 

 whether for Watchers or for printers, is 

 direct service to the country in the present 



crisis. 



# * * 



Some of the R.S.P.B. Watchers are acting 

 as Town and Special Guards in the districts 

 where they are employed ; and for this 

 work they have been given permission to 

 use the field-glasses with which the Society 



furnishes them for Watching purposes. 



*■ * *- 



It is needless to say that the R.S.P.B. 

 stock of Nesting-Boxes will not be 

 replenished this autumn from Germany. 

 Bird-lovers who had ordered, or were pro- 

 posing to order, Boxes for next spring are 

 asked to excuse possible delay in meeting 

 requirements. The industry is one that 

 should take good root on English soil, and 

 it is hoped that arrangements may be made 

 for the supply of British-made Boxes on the 



Berlepsch pattern. 



* # * 



A correspondent writes from Shetland 



(Aug. 4, 1914): 



" A pair of Swallows this spring built a 

 nest under a bridge at Sellafirth, a small 



village two and a half miles from Gutcher, 

 and have hatched their young. 1 am 

 carefully watching the nest in case of it 

 being disturbed. Never before has a 

 Swallow been known to breed in this part 

 of Shetland." 



The bird is an occasional \isilor to the 

 Shetlands, Orkneys, and Hebrides, and even 

 to Iceland, but a nest so far north as 

 Gutcher is very exceptional. 



A different reception has been given to 

 some of the Swallow family in the Test 

 Valley, Hampshire, where considerable 

 feeling was aroused this summer by the 

 discovery that certain sand-pits, and also a 

 cottage roof, had been wired over nests 

 of Sand-Martins and Swallows during the 

 actual breeding-season, shutting in and thus 

 starving the birds. Explanations offered 

 state that the netting was ordered in the 

 early spring — but not done ; also that 

 dangerous pits may be netted to save the 

 birds, and that thatched roofs must be pro- 

 tected. Unfortunately it has also been 

 urged in local papers that birds such as 

 Swallow, Swift, Heron, Kingfisher, and, in 

 short, any species which includes flies or 

 young trout in its dietary should be cleared 

 from a trout stream. The spirit of the 

 angler is better expressed by a writer on 

 "The Fisherman's Friends" in the County 

 Gentleman (June 20th, 1914), who writes on 

 the very birds the commercial syndicate 

 would annihilate, and adds: "Whatever 

 the angler's tastes may be originally, sooner 

 or later he will find the love of wild life 

 growing within him, for his sport takes 

 him to delightful spots where nature 

 reigns supreme, and where the ruthless 



