Bird Notes and News 



59 



their interesting reports should be printed 

 in due course for private circulation 

 among the subscribers to the Watchers 

 Fund. Bird-rests had been installed at 

 South Bishop and Spurn Lighthouses, 

 as well as at St. Catherine's and the 

 Caskets, and satisfactory letters from the 

 keepers were read. 



General Business. 



The history of the campaign in support 

 of the Government Bill Plumage Im- 

 portation (Prohibition) Bill, and of the 

 ultimate abandonment of the Bill (on 

 the outbreak of the War in August) 

 after five months' Parliamentary work 

 and on the eve of the third reading, was 

 considered, and the further action of the 

 Society discussed. Arrangements for 

 Annual and Council Meetings in 1915 

 were also considered. 



BIRD-RESTS AT THE LIGHT- 

 HOUSES. 



Reports received from the Lighthouses 

 oontinue to give evidence of the practical 

 value of the bird-rests and perches erected 

 by the Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds (by permission and with the 

 co-operation of the Master and Brethren 

 of Trinity House) for the preservation of 

 Migrating Birds. This special work, it 

 will be remembered, was undertaken by 

 the Society in order to provide resting- 

 places at certain Lighthouses for the 

 many thousands of migrants who, at- 

 tracted by the bright light of the lantern, 

 flutter around it until, dropping down 

 from exhaustion, they perish in the gallery 

 or are lost in the sea. The experiment is 

 the first of the kind made outside the 

 Netherlands, where it has been success- 

 fully adopted at the great Terschelling 

 Light. 



Four British Lighthouses have now 

 been fitted with the apparatus. The 



spring reports from St. Catherine's, Isle 

 of Wight, showed that the weather during 

 the spring migration had been unusually 

 fine and clear, and consequently the birds 

 had as a rule flown high and not been 

 deluded by the lantern. Nevertheless, the 

 use of the perches had been great enough 

 to intimate that there is never likely to 

 be such another night's destruction as 

 that in April, 1913, when representatives 

 of the Society were shown the remains 

 of five hundred small travellers from 

 overseas who had fluttered out their 

 small lives in the night and been picked 

 up dead in the Lighthouse gallery. 



The autumn reports are also encour- 

 aging. From St. Catherine's the chief 

 officer writes, under date October 22nd : — 



" The perches were erected for the spring 

 migration on the 12th March and taken 

 down on the 20th June, during which time 

 they were undoubtedly of value in the 

 saving of bird-life, as the number killed was 

 small compared with the quantity killed 

 during migration before the perches were 

 erected. It is during thick or hazy weather 

 that the perches are of most value, and if 

 there should happen to be a large movement 

 of birds when the weather is hazy, it is 

 noticed that large quantities of birds make 

 use of the perches till the weather clears, 

 or until daybreak. 



" The perches were erected for the autumn 

 migration on the 29th August, and are still 

 in position, and have been made use of 

 considerably by the birds previous to their 

 flight southwards." 



The Caskets report, dated November 

 2nd, states : — 



" Flocks of birds have been passing both 

 day and night during the whole month, 

 large numbers at times resting on the perches. 



" The following is a list of the birds seen : 

 Ring Ouzel, Song Thrush, Redwing, Starling, 

 Chaffinch, Skylark, Robin, Golden-crested 

 Wren, Common Wren, Duck, Blackbird, 

 Snipe, Water Rail, Linnet, Goldfinch, Wheat- 

 ear, Redstart, Tomtit." 



The rests at the South Bishop Light- 

 house were first put up in the autumn of 



