78 



Bird Notes and News 



Report presented, and several subjects 

 of importance were discussed. 



Meetings of the General Purposes and 

 Watchers Committees were held on 

 February 19th. 



Next meeting of Council, April 23rd. 



OBITUARY. 



The Society has to regret the loss of two 

 old and valued workers who have been 

 associated with it almost from the first. 

 Mrs. Maynard Proud, of East Layton Hall, 

 had been Hon. Sec. for East Yorkshire 

 since 1892, was a Fellow of the Society, 

 and took the keenest and kindliest interest 

 in all its doings, and indeed in every effort 

 to preserve the beauty of the English 

 countryside. Her husband, the late Mr. 

 John Proud, was also a warm supporter 

 of the cause. 



Mrs. Fielden Taylor became Hon. Sec. 

 for Worthing in 1891, and though ill- 

 health prevented her from taking an active 



part there or in her later home at Torquay, 

 her sympathies were always with the work, 

 and a very short time ago she was in 

 correspondence with the Society re- 

 specting the protection of Devonshire's 

 sea-birds. 



BELGIANS AND BIRD- 

 PROTECTION. 



Although the Belgian Bird Protection 

 laws are in many respects more stringent 

 than those of Great Britain, and among 

 the best in Europe, it has been thought 

 desirable to acquaint refugees with the 

 Close-time regulations in force in this 

 country, in order to avert possibly taking 

 of small birds for the pot. The Society 

 has accordingly issued a handbill for this 

 purpose, printed in English, French, and 

 Flemish. Some thousands have been 

 circulated, by the help of the police and 

 through other agencies, and further copies 

 will be gladly supplied. 



Notes. 



A variety of Bird notes of an interesting 

 kind have found their way into the news- 

 papers in connexion with the War. Not 

 the least so are various letters recording 

 the agitation displayed by Pheasants at 

 the time of the North Sea battle, and the 

 alarm shown by Parrots and other birds 

 on the approach of an aeroplane. The 

 excitement among the Pheasants on the 

 morning of January 24th, in districts of 

 Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, is 

 vouched for by Canon Rawnsley. The 

 Rev. G. Egerton-Warburton, in his book 

 " In a Cheshire Garden," written a couple 

 of years ago, mentions the like commotion 

 in a pheasantry on the occasion of a slight 



earthquake shock in 1896, and cites a 

 similar instance from Japan. 



As to Parrots, they, it is said, work them- 

 selves into an intense state of excitement and 

 screech loudly before human eyes discern 

 an aeroplane in the sky. Accordingly, 

 reports the Standard's Paris correspondent, 

 a number of these birds have been posted 

 on the Eiffel Tower and other stations, in 

 order to ascertain how far they may be useful 

 in signalling the approach of aircraft. The 

 trouble is that no training can make Parrots 

 discriminate between a French aeroplane 

 and a German one ! Long before the War 

 it had been observed by keepers of poultry 



