BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



85 



ported cage-birds, an effort is being made to 

 check so undesired an effect either by pro- 

 hibition of the import or by inducing the 

 countries concerned to stop the export. The 

 Audubon Societies, the Federation of American 

 Humane Societies, and the American S.P.C.A. 

 are said to be all favourable to the proposal ; 

 but the second course is thought the simpler 

 and the more courteous method. Miss 

 Marshall Saunde s writes from Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia, to the R.S.P.B. : 



" Do any of these little foreigners come from 

 London ? Can your Society do anything to stop 

 exportation ? Dr. Palmer says that the foreign 

 birds brought into this country live on an average 

 only one year. Nearly 43,000 come every year, but 

 next year they are nearly all dead." 



THE TRAFFIC IN QUAILS. 



In an article in the Spectator (August 21st, 

 1909) on " Bhd Protection in Europe," based 

 upon the Essays on " Comparative Legisla- 

 tion " published by the Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, the writer observes : — 



"Of the hundreds of thousands of birds which 

 every spring cross the Mediterranean to try to find a 

 nesting-home in Northern Europe, one of the weakest 

 fliers, and one of the most easily caught, is the 

 Quail. All along the coast of the Mediterranean 

 where the Quails alight, too tired to fly further, they 

 are netted by the hundred thousand for exportation 

 alive as food. One of the chief markets is London. 

 In bringing the Quails to London thousands of birds 

 die on the voyage ; the stench in the ships which 

 carry the crowded crates is intolerable ; and only 

 a small proportion of the birds actually caught find 

 their way to Leadenhall and other markets. The 

 Quails which Englishmen eat in the spring and 

 early summer months in England are actually the 

 very birds who set out travelling north to seek the 

 hospitality of British shores in the nesting season. 

 How many London hostesses arranging dinner parties 

 in the season think of that ? Until we are rid of 

 that reproach we cannot as a people ask our European 

 neighbours to add a line to their statute-books in 

 legislation for birds." 



BIRD SANCTUARIES. 



The New York Zoological Society published 

 last June a Bulletin dealing exclusively with 

 the preservation of wild life, which is one of 

 the three great objects for which the Society 

 was founded. This shows clearly the rapid 

 advance made in the matter recently in the 

 United States, and the healthy feeling which 



is being engendered. National and provincial 

 parks and game preserves now cover no fewer 

 than over seven million acres in the States, 

 with ten million acres more in the Canadian 

 Rockies. " Around the coast there is 

 gradually being extended a chain of insular 

 bird sanctuaries that means much to the 

 avifauna of North America. Prior to 

 January 1st, 1909, twenty-five national bird 

 refuges had been created by executive order 

 and proclamation, chiefly among our sea- 

 coasts. They provide specially protected 

 breeding grounds for the Brown Pelican, Gulls, 

 Terns, Skimmers, shore birds of various 

 species, Herons, Egrets, Ducks and numerous 

 other species. It is impossible to over- 

 estimate the zoological value of these 

 sanctuaries, or to praise too highly the wisdom 

 that brought them into existence." During 

 the present year no fewer than twenty-six 

 additions have been made to the list. 



ISLAND RESERVES. 



Great Britain, where the number of bird 

 sanctuaries is lamentably small, might well 

 take a hint from the States. Why should 

 not we, too, have a chain of island sanctu- 

 aries, starting from Lundy (which is, on 

 paper at least, already a protected area for 

 eggs) and proceeding via Skomer, Ramsey and 

 Bardsey Islands to Holy Island, the Skerries 

 and Walney ; sweeping in the Isle of Man, if 

 Man will ; then by Arran and the islets of the 

 Western Highlands to the Hebrides and the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands ; back down the east 

 coast to the Bass Rock and other isles of the 

 Firth of Forth, Holy Island, the Fame Isles, 

 Coquet, St. Mary's Island, to Spurn Head, 

 and then south for the Isle of Wight (though 

 too late to save the Ravens\ and the Scillies. 

 Many of these islands are the homes of 

 peculiarly interesting birds and already have 

 the anxious care of bird-lovers and Watchers. 

 The County Councils and landowners con- 

 cerned might advantageously consider making 

 a considerable proportion into bird- reserves. 



