BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



79 



ucr ^cr BircULife in Switzerland, usr ucr 



[The following notes, made during a recent visit 

 to Switzerland by Miss E. G. Woodd, of Eastbourne, 

 show how much is done by the Swiss, as by the 

 Germans, to attract and protect wild birds.] 



I had been discussing the value of wild 

 birds in our Sussex garden with our irate 

 gardener, who vows vengeance on all of 

 them, except perhaps the Robin, and who 

 in spring disfigures the fruit trees with tin 

 pots and pans that clang hideously, and with 

 rags and ribbons that flutter in the wind, 

 to frighten away such Tits and other birds 

 as still venture to the town of Eastbourne. 

 A day and a night of travel took me to 

 Switzerland, and even as we rushed by in 

 the train I noticed the number of wooden 

 nesting-boxes hung in the trees to encourage 

 the very birds so often persecuted at home. 

 We spent five days at Halterfingen, a 

 delightful village on the shores of Thuner See. 

 Here, and up the mountains everywhere, 

 the orchard trees, poles and telegraph posts 

 were furnished with nesting-boxes ; and 

 Tits of all kinds abounded. One could 

 watch them, with the delicate Warblers, 

 busily devouring countless insects, between 

 their call-notes and hurried snatches of song. 

 In private grounds, hotel grounds, in railway- 

 station enclosures, around chalets, hung the 

 boxes ; and not infrequently we came across 

 feeding-houses of different artistic designs, 

 set up for the use of the birds in winter time, 

 and provided with natural branches so that 

 the birds should not be shy of perching on 



them. On the terrace of Hotel May, Ober- 

 hofen, there hung a food-bell after the 

 pattern used by Baron von Berlepsch — 

 a reversed bottle, out of which dropped grain 

 or seed on to a tin tray receptacle, rather 

 after the manner of water in an aviary 

 drinking fountain. On the tray the birds 

 could perch and eat. Under the wide- 

 spreading chalet roofs were to be seen baskets 

 of nuts, fat, and other dainties for Tits. In 

 another Canton, boxes were placed against 

 the wall under the eaves of each house. 

 Altogether it was a revelation to see the 

 determined effort of rich and poor to secure 

 the presence of beings so fascinating and so 

 useful, but so little valued by ourselves in 

 England, as wild birds. May we not also 

 take it as a sign of a less persecuted avifauna 

 that Chaffinches and other birds came near 

 us with much greater confidence than in the 

 homeland. A Great Tit darted lightly on 

 to the table d'hote from an open window ; 

 huge Hawks swooped close over the steam- 

 boats on the lakes ; one noble bird — a Kite 

 by his red colour, but with an unforked tail — 

 coming regularly on his daily beat right up 

 to the landing-stage opposite Hotel Schweizer- 

 hof, Lucerne. He and a Heron performed 

 some beautiful evolutions on the water. 



As a last word, however, to this sketch, 

 why did I see not one Song Thrush or 

 Missel-Thrush in Switzerland ? Blackbirds 

 abounded. There was no dearth of delectable 

 snails ; why, then, no Thrushes ? 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



The Bird Life of London. By Charles Dixon. 

 With illustrations in colour, and black and white. 

 London : W. Heinemann. 6s. net. 



Birds Useful and Harmful. By Otto Herman 

 and J. A. Owen. With 100 illustrations by T. 

 Czorgey. London : Sherratt & Hughes. Gs. net. 



The Making of Species. Bv Douglas Dewar, 

 I.C.S., F.Z.S., and Frank Finn,~F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



With 15 illustrations. London: John Lane. 7s. Od. 

 net. 



Proceedings of a Conference of Governors 

 in the White House, Washington, May 13-15, 

 1908. Washington : Government Printing Press. 

 450 pp. A Conference of Governors of the United 

 States held to consider the conservation of the 

 ci amtry's natural resources. 



