BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



87 



was elected an Hon. Member. A letter 

 was read from Miss Marshall Saunders, of 

 Halifax, N.S., on behalf of the Federation 

 of American Humane Societies, urging legis- 

 lation to stop the exportation of British 

 Wild Birds ; it was agreed that further 

 enquiries should be made. A letter with regard 

 to steps being taken in France to encourage 

 the raising of ornamental-plumaged poultry 

 for the use of their feathers in millinery was 

 presented, and its consideration postponed. 

 Various other questions were considered. 



Watchers' Committee. — The Council meet- 

 ing was followed by a meeting of the Watchers' 

 Committee, when detailed reports of the 

 season's Watching and of its results were 

 received, and were regarded as generally 

 satisfactory. An exception, however, was 

 the case of the Ravens of Freshwater, 

 probably the last pair in Hampshire or the 

 Isle of Wight. Notwithstanding the vigilance 

 of the Watcher, the eggs were stolen, and 

 subsequently both the old birds were shot. 

 They were stated to have been on sale at a 

 local bird-stuffer's ; but the enquiries made 

 by the Society, and the offer of £5 reward 

 for information, failed to produce sufficient 

 evidence to justify a prosecution. Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo reported his visit to the Shetlands, 

 and the status and condition of the rarer 

 birds on those islands. Thanks to the activity 

 of the Watchers, it is believed that the 

 collectors who were known to have visited the 

 islands this season had been unable to secure 

 any trophies. 



Meetings of the Finance and General 

 Purposes, Publication and Watchers' Com- 

 mittees were held at 23, Queen Anne's Gate, 

 on September 17th. 



OBITUARY. 



Ornithological science has lost an old and 

 valued worker in the death at Norwich, on 

 September 5th, 1909, of Mr. Thomas Southwell, 

 for many years Secretary and twice President 

 of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 



Society. Mr. Southwell was a leading authority 

 on the birds of Norfolk, and edited and 

 enlarged the third volume of Stevenson's 

 work. He was a Fellow of the Zoological 

 Society, a member of the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union, and a Life Associate of 

 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 

 in the work of which he took an active 

 interest. He was seventy-eight years of age. 

 Professor D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S., who 

 had been a Vice-President of the Society 

 since 1899, died on June 23rd, in Edinburgh. 

 A native of Crieff, where he was born in 1850, 

 Dr. Cunningham took hisM.D. at Edinburgh 

 University, and from 1903 until his death 

 was Professor of Anatomy at the same 

 University ; but for twenty-one years he 

 was associated with Trinity College, Dublin, 

 as Professor of Anatomy and Chirurgery. 

 He wrote numerous medical papers, and was 

 the recipient of many honours in the course 

 of his distinguished career. 



NESTING-BOXES. 

 Nesting-boxes for wild birds are again 

 being stocked by the Society at their London 

 depot. This year a new English box, the 

 " Walden," of plain hard wood, with leather 

 hinge, has been added and forms a good 

 pattern for home carpenters. The German 

 boxes, on the other hand, cannot be imitated 

 successfully by the amateur, as the holes are 

 made by special methods in the thickness of 

 the natural wood. Illustrated lists can be 

 had from the Society's Office. 



CHRISTMAS CARD. 

 " Jenny Wren," the Society's greeting card 

 for Christmas and New Year, reproduced 

 in colour from the painting by Miss Winifred 

 Austen, will be ready October 25th. It can 

 be had with or without calendar for 1910, 

 price 3d., one dozen 2/6 (by post 2 7). 

 Copies can also be had of "In the Belfry," 

 by Mr. Robert Morley, with calendar for 

 1910, and of "The Arab of the Air," by 

 Mr. G. E. Lodge. 



