BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



33 



^^cT ucT Economic Ornithology, usr usr 



GAMEKEEPERS AND BIRDS. 



Although the gamekeeper as naturalist 

 can hardly be expected to shake himself 

 wholly free of a tendency to regard Nature 

 as a doubtful character of the poacher order, 

 the intelligent gamekeeper occasionally makes 

 good use of such an opportunity of studying 

 the ways of birds as falls to few men. The 

 gentleman -keeper who, under the name of 

 Owen Jones, writes of " Ten Years of Game- 

 keeping " (Edward Arnold, 1910), has some 

 interesting remarks on several of those species 

 of wild birds which are usually seen on the 

 " gibbet." Even Sparrow-Hawks are not 

 painted wholly black by this writer, but are 

 declared not to inflict damage on game " to 

 a degree anything like proportionate to the 

 zeal with which their destruction is sought." 

 " I averaged," says Mr. Owen Jones, " for 

 ten years on the same ground, three nests of 

 Kestrels and two of Sparrow-Hawks, and 

 they never did any noticeable damage." He 

 adds : 



" I regret to say that the last surviving pair of 

 Magpies in the locaUty where I was keepering were 

 picked up in 1909 by a keeper (not myself) — that is 

 to say, they were not trapped or shot, but poisoned. 

 Utterly to exterminate birds so handsome may 

 save a trifle of game for the gun, but surely such 

 extremes of preservation can only bring uj^on the 

 perpetrators the derision and disgust of all sane 

 people. A judicious thinning of Hawks and Mag- 

 pies is c^i^ite enough to satisfy the demands of any 

 sportsman, and their extinction is bound to react 

 to the detriment of the selfish few. . . . No 

 sane keeper would wish to be without a sprinkling 

 of Jays, in his wood, for he has no naore vigilant and 

 useful sentinels. 



" Some Owls occasionally kill young pheasants, 

 while others sometimes frighten them ; therefore, 

 all Owls ought to be slain. So reason many keepers 

 who ought to know better. The trvith is this : few 

 Owls do any harm at all to game, and all Owls do 

 far more good than harm. The Short-eared Owls, 

 by preying on young game, may incur the wrath 

 of the keeper in the North, where they breed, but, 

 seeing that in the South these Owls appear only 

 when there is no young game, there is no case against 

 them. 



" Reviewing the vermin question as a whole, I 

 admit that there is much room for improvement 



in the attitude of keepers. However, I am certain 

 that since education means enlightenment, and 

 modern preservation and shooting demand keepers 

 of better education than formerly, the time is not 

 far distant when all keepers will be men of educa- 

 tion, and therefore of enlightenment. In this way, 

 and in no other, will come about a rational dis- 

 crimination in the matter of creatures now so often 

 slaughtered indiscriminately as vermin." 



" Wliat the thinking keeper of to-day 

 resents," the writer proceeds, " is that all 

 keepers should be tarred witli the sins of 

 individuals." Much the same thing might 

 be said by the thinking Owi or Hawk. 



A more serious indictment of the keeper 

 and his master is made by the Avriter on 

 country sjDort in the Sketch (May 4th, 1910). 

 " There is," he says. " every reason to believe 

 that the Wild Birds Protection Act is a dead 

 letter to the average under-kceper, and even 

 the head man is not often well informed. 

 To make matters worse there is no super- 

 vision. 



" I know one keeper on a small estate near the 

 sea-coast who, being a taxidermist in a modest 

 way, has stuffed all the rare birds that have come 

 his way. The collection include two Bustards, 

 several Peregrine Falcons, some Grebes, a Flamingo, 

 a Stork, several Eider-Ducks, and other birds so 

 seldom associated with our coast, that I am forced 

 to believe he must owe a part of his collection to 

 birds that have escaped from the aviaries of col- 

 lectors many miles away. The shooting of most 

 of them was an indictable offence, but I never heard 

 that he was harshlj^ criticised on that account." 



A WORD FOR THE SPARROW. 



Miss Violet Burke writes to the Hampshire 

 Chronicle (July 16th) : — ■ 



" I happen to be in a position to give evidence 

 from my owti experience of the uses of the Sparrow, 

 which has perhaps the very blackest character in all 

 birdhood. Seated in a garden the other day, I was 

 watching with some dismay a promising rose-tree 

 bursting into flower, but smothered in green-fly. 

 Presently, however, came to this stricken plant 

 a little rascally Sparrow, followed at once, as is 

 the Sparrow way, by many others ; and ere I had 

 watched their proceedings for many minutes I 

 found that hardly a green-fly was left on the tree." 



