Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS :: 



Vol. VI. ] 



WINTER, 1915. 



[No. 8. 



The R.S.P.B. in War-time.— II. 



The allotment of so many pages of the 

 present number of Bird Notes & News 

 to the Society's Bird-and-Tree Competi- 

 tions in elementary schools would not be 

 justified if this were one of the many plans 

 on foot simply for the edification and 

 amusement of children, and for providing 

 them with prizes. It would not be justi- 

 fied if it were simply a good suggestion 

 for employing their leisure and holiday 

 hours, and for promoting school and 

 village amenities ; or a method of adding 

 untold interest to country life ; or a 

 means of inculcating Bird Protection and 

 general humanity in the rising generation. 



The Bird-and-Tree scheme is, it is true, 

 all this ; and all are worthy objects. 

 But it is something more. It takes its 

 place as one of the foremost activities of 

 the Society in war-time, because the 

 definite study to which the Competition 

 forms an introduction is one of national 

 importance, the need for which is not 

 lessened but strongly emphasized by the 

 present national crisis. The Council them- 

 selves, in starting the scheme a dozen 

 years ago, hardly realised the place it 

 could be made to fill in national economics, 

 and could not foresee the way in which 

 the questions involved would be forced 

 on the public mind. 



In the Autumn Number of Bird Notes 

 and Neivs reference was made to the 

 economic position of bird-life in connexion 



with every form of agriculture. It was 

 pointed out that the constant daily work 

 of birds, year in, year out, in keeping down 

 the insect hordes of the world, is not 

 realised, and will not be realised until an 

 effort is made to compute with accuracy 

 of observation and scientific examination 

 of facts, the quantity of grubs, caterpillars, 

 flies, weevils, and larger vermin, consumed 

 by birds, especially in the nesting-season 

 when this destruction is most imperative. 

 Who, for instance, would have supposed 

 in grumbling that a Woodpecker had 

 bored into his tree, that — as Mr. Collinge 

 has just shown — the Woodpecker might 

 have dined off fifty, or a hundred or three 

 hundred, wood-destroying beetles ? Who 

 would consider — to select a bird as much 

 contemned as any, and to quote, not a 

 scientific expert, but a country child — 

 that a Bullfinch would come to its nest 

 eleven times in five minutes, and keep 

 this up more or less all day, bringing each 

 time small caterpillars or greenfly to its 

 brood % The child is not fitted for 

 laboratory examination ; but the no less 

 essential outdoor observation is peculiarly 

 fitted for his quick eyes, when once he is 

 loosed from old country prejudices which 

 look on every bird as a " varmint " and 

 a pest. The amazing extent of this 

 prejudice is fully illustrated by many of 

 the children's essays written before first- 

 hand watching has set in. In these there 



