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Bird Notes and News 



the county, and of the unnecessary des- 

 truction of birds for which gardeners, 

 farmers, and foresters are responsible. He 

 continued : — 



" One of the greatest dangers we have to 

 contend with is the Sparrow Club, so-called. 

 If these clubs confined themselves to the 

 legitimate object of keeping the number of 

 sparrows and rats within reasonable bounds 

 no objection would be raised against them ; 

 but as at present constituted they ought to 

 be stamped out as unclean things. They do 

 not confine their activities to sparrows and 

 rats, but accept the heads of all small birds ; 

 consequently there is probably a larger 

 proportion of useful insect-eating finches and 

 warblers destroyed than sparrows. If these 

 clubs cannot be ended, they should at least 

 be under efficient control, so that the senseless 

 slaughter of useful birds may be stopped." 



Where is the " efficient control " to come 

 from ? 



Among recent records of interesting bird- 



visitors is that of an Osprey found dead, 

 with a broken wing, in Pagham harbour in 

 October. Chichester is one of the regions 

 in Sussex and Hants most favoured by 

 Ospreys, generally young birds, and Knox's 

 " Ornithological Rambles " pictures one 

 flying over the Arun near Arundel. Late 

 in November a Buzzard in good condition 

 was shot near Arklow by a person named 

 Simpson, who in a newspaper letter recording 

 his shame, adds that he thinks " the recent 

 very violent storm must have driven it 

 inland." A young female example of the 

 Greater Spotted Eagle was found in Hereford- 

 shire with a broken wing, and had evidently 

 been shot. This is the twelfth time the 

 species has been recorded in Britain. A 

 Golden Eagle has been shot in County Mayo, 

 believed to be the last of the Irish Eagles. 

 In Cumberland a Hoopoe has been shot " in 

 mistake for a Jay." 



Bird Protection in the West Indies. 



A new and comprehensive ordinance has 

 been made for the better protection of wild 

 birds and animals in Trinidad and Tobago. 

 The native birds are set out in two schedules, 

 giving the generic, scientific, and local names 

 of each, and thus providing a valuable 

 authorised list of the indigenous species of 

 the islands. Those in the first schedule are 

 protected all the year, together with nest and 

 eggs ; and taking or possession are equally 

 punishable with killing or wounding. The 

 proof that the bird or egg was killed or 

 taken before the commencement of the 

 ordinance, or out of the Colony, rests with the 

 possessor. This schedule contains the names 

 of 212 species : thrushes, wrens, warblers, 

 honey creepers, vireos, swallows, tanagers, 



orioles, cassiques, blackbirds, flycatchers, 

 manakins, cotingas, wood creepers, oven 

 birds, ant-birds, humming birds, swifts, 

 goat-suckers, woodpeckers, king of the woods, 

 kingfishers and jacamans, trogons, cuckoos 

 and tick birds, toucan, parrots, owls, 

 corbeaux, doves, herons, egrets and ibises, 

 together with hawks and kites. 



The second schedule gives the names of 

 27 species, protected between March 21st 

 and October 1st. Power is given to the 

 Governor to vary the close season for any 

 bird, to prohibit the exportation of birds, 

 nests, or eggs, and the importation of 

 dead birds or parts thereof, nests and eggs, 

 and to authorise the taking of specimens for 

 scientific purposes. 



