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Bird Notes and News 



hand of the keeper has not wiped out 

 everything that is not game." 



* * * 



A few years ago the question was before 

 the Salmon and Trout Association, when 

 Mr. Willis Bund well argued that before 

 the Swallow tribe were blacklisted for 

 destroying aquatic flies, it should be 

 proved that a decrease in flies corresponded 

 with an increase of the birds. We know 

 now, even better than in 1909, that the 

 birds are seriously decreasing. 



* * * 



Mr. Cornelius Hanbury draws attention 



to the sins of the House-Sparrow in taking 



possession of Swallows' nests. He writes: 



" For some time past I have observed 

 that during the building of the Swallows' 

 nests around my house the Sparrows 

 habitually place themselves so as to watch 

 the progress of the nest, and when it is 

 sufficiently advanced for their purpose they 

 take possession and begin to carry grass, 

 etc., to form a nest in the structure, and 

 fight off the Swallows. They even attack 

 the Swallow when sitting, and have been 

 known at my house actually to lay hold of 

 the sitting Swallow and drag her out of her 

 nest." 



* * * 



England has not much experience of 

 parasitic birds, for here the great majority 

 of species decently build their own 

 nests and hatch their own eggs ; but 

 it is curious to note that in another 

 part of the world one of the Swallow family 

 is among the sinners. In his " Argentine 

 Ornithology " Mr. Hudson gives an account 

 of the manner in which the Tree Swallows 

 take possession of the nests of the 

 Oven-bird. 



* * * 



The successful working of the Bird 

 Protection laws in Egypt, brought to the 

 notice of Mr. Montagu Sharpe during his 



visit to that country last year, is chronicled 

 (in the Report of the Zoological Service 

 in connexion with the Egyptian Ministry 

 of Public Works) by Captain Stanley 

 Flower, Director. Although it was only 

 in May, 1912, that the laws as to shooting- 

 licences and the protection of birds useful 

 to agriculture were made, the results are 

 already most encouraging. As was to be 

 expected, there has been a certain amount 

 of opposition from natives of Southern 

 Europe living in Egypt, who had been 

 accustomed to eat every kind of little bird 

 they could manage to kill, but the public 

 generally, says Captain Flower, have 

 thoroughly supported the regulations ; 

 officials of Government departments, of 

 the Khedivial Agricultural Society, and of 

 Messrs. Thomas Cook and Sons, have given 

 whole-hearted assistance ; and private 

 gentlemen have helped by making the 

 laws known to their friends and employees 

 and by reporting illegal shooting. 



" The omdehs and sheikhs of villages 

 and owners of agricultural land visited 

 during the year are all quite enthusiastic 

 on the subject of Bird Protection, both 

 from the practical side of the birds 

 checking the ravages of insects in their 

 crops and from the aesthetic or sentimental 

 side of preserving from persecution such 

 birds as the Stone-Curlew, locally known as 

 the ' Kara wan.' " 



* * * 



A note to the Report explains the reverence 

 in which this bird is held by the fellahin. 

 The cry of the Stone-Curlew, or Norfolk 

 Plover, is supposed to resemble the Arabic 

 words "El Moulk Lak Lak ya Rab," mean- 

 ing "The Universe is Thine, Thine, 

 God," and thus the bird is held to be 

 continually praising the Almighty, and to 

 bring good luck to anyone upon whose 

 land it dwells. 



