Bird Notes and News 



57 



asks in horror, Is this an omen ? In stormy 

 migration seasons many strange birds occur 

 in Kent : but it is safe to say that the Eagle 

 was not a swollen-headed German vulture ! 



* * * 



The difficulties encountered by the Royal 



Society for the Protection of Birds in pro- 

 viding Nesting-Boxes on the Berlepsch 

 principle, but British-made, have now been 

 happily overcome, and two enterprising 

 firms have laid down special machinery by 

 which boxes equal in every respect to 

 those formerly imported in Germany are 

 being turned out. The pattern devised by 

 Baron von Berlepsch is undoubtedly most 

 ingenious, strong, and attractive, and every 

 effort will be made by the Society and by 

 the collaborating firms to show that England 

 can meet and beat the German manufacturer 

 and to establish the business as a British 

 industry. All that is needed is the co- 

 operation of bird-lovers and of those who 

 value the economic services of birds. 



* * * 



It is now some years since the outbreak 

 of larch-disease at Thirlmere introduced 

 Nesting-Boxes for small birds to that 

 district. The acquisition of Thirlmere as a 

 reservoir constitutes one of the greatest 

 municipal undertakings of Manchester, and 

 afforestation formed an important feature 

 of the great scheme. Then came the 

 disease and the prospect of destruction for 

 the carefully-reared trees. Fortunately the 

 adviser of the Corporation at that time was 

 Dr. Gordon Hewitt, now Dominion Entomo- 

 logist to the Government of Canada. To 

 him came the thought of fighting the pest 

 by encouraging the presence in the planta- 

 tions of its natural enemies, the wild birds, 

 especially the Tits, by means of Nesting- 

 Boxes. * 



During the past summer the Manchester 

 Corporation paid a visit of inspection to 

 Thirlmere, the first for seven years, and, 

 to quote the Manchester City News, " the 

 afforestation scheme, started six years ago, 

 was quite one of the most interesting things 

 of the day." 



" There were beds and beds of all sorts 

 of seedlings of trees that have been found 

 most suitable to the district. Many of 

 them were no bigger than a finger, but on 

 the slopes all around could be seen examples 

 of what these mites will become even in 

 a few short years." 



The head forester exhibited samples of 

 the Nesting-Boxes, " which are placed up 

 and down the estate to encourage birds to 

 multiply and become exceeding plentiful." 

 " There were," he said, " four hundred boxes 

 out last year, and seventy-six per cent, 

 were inhabited. The birds are also fed in 

 the winter, the feeding-place being situated 

 in a delightful little wood which has grown up 

 under the kindly care of the city fathers. 

 The object of all this is the destruction 

 of the larch-fly and other insect pests, and 

 it is having an excellent effect." 



Afforestation has been held out by many 

 persons as one of the solutions of the unem- 

 ployment problem. The Thirlmere forester 

 stipulates that the " unemployed " directed 

 into this channel of industry should at 

 least have been brought up in the country. 

 His experience is that men from towns have 

 a tendency to plant young trees upside 

 down. Some other people may wonder, 

 too, if town men have ideas in " forestry " 

 beyond lopping and topping, or knowledge 

 of other species than Planes, Horse-Chestnuts, 

 and pseudo-Acacias. 



