34 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



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GULLS AND FLSH. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne's enthusiastic 

 commendation of fish as food, in his presi- 

 dential address at the Sanitary Inspectors' 

 Conference, August 30th, is notable as a 

 comment upon the periodical outcry that 

 the Gulls or the Cormorants or some other 

 terrible winged creatures are devouring man's 

 potential food, and bringing ruin on the 

 fisheries. It was. Sir James said, much to 

 be hoped that the propaganda undertaken 

 by the Fishmongers Company in conjunction 

 with the National Sea Fisheries Protection 

 Association, would increase the demand for 

 cheap fish. " It was lamentable to reflect 

 that enormous quanties of good, wholesome, 

 nourishing fish were year by year thrown back 

 into the sea, or converted into manure 

 because it would not pay to bring it to 

 market." To which statement, the Prime 

 Warden of the Fishmongers Company, 

 interviewed by the Daily Mail, added : 

 " There can be no doubt that the supply of 

 the coarser, that is the cheaper, kind of fish, 

 such as ling, haddock, plaice, skate, mackerel, 

 codlings, sprats, and herrings, is practically 

 illimitable." Yet not so long ago we were 

 being told that thousands of pounds sterling 

 are lost to the nation because gulls eat 

 herrings that could otherwise be sold at 

 a penny a-piece ! 



NESTING=BOXES. 



The R.S.P.B. business in nesting boxes, 

 commenced tentatively with the object of 

 l^opularising the custom and providing pat- 

 terns, has gro\vTi so greatly that it will now 

 be carried on as a distinct branch of the 

 work ; and it will be of great assistance in 

 expediting despatch of boxes if those order- 

 ing them will mark their envelope " Nesting- 

 Boxes." Pleasant tales have been received 



of happy little families reared in many of 

 these boxes, and the pleasure they afforded. 

 One observer noted that for a range of 

 twenty yards round his Tit-box green-fly 

 was fairly cleared off his fruit-trees ; he sent 

 for more boxes to place outside that range. 



IN SWITZERLAND. 



L'Etoile Beige (Sept. 4th, 1910) quotes the 

 experiences of M. Joseph Soly, an ardent 

 worker for Bird Protection in Belgium, as to 

 the greater tamcness of wild birds in Germany 

 and especially in Switzerland, than in his 

 own land. All over Switzerland, he remarks, 

 there is constant solicitude for the little 

 birds ; in the public parks you find troops of 

 Blackbirds and Starlings, and on the hotel 

 terraces marauding sparrows and finches 

 chirp around the tables to attract the 

 attention of visitors. This will not seem 

 remarkable to English readers, and in 

 Brussels, comments UEtoile, the house- 

 sparrows in the Park are tame enough. 

 M. Soly adds, however, that placards hung in 

 prominent places invite the residents to feed 

 the winged folk in the winter. Little tables, 

 covered with roofs, are set up in the parks 

 and on lawns to hold food, and nothing is 

 more touching than to see the urchins on 

 their way to school place scraps of bread 

 there as a pious duty. The citizens, the 

 shopkeepers, everyone, in fact, watches over 

 the hungry birds. The same kindliness no 

 doubt exists in London and in Brussels. 

 M. Soly might see clerks and workmen feed- 

 ing gulls on the London bridges ; street-arabs 

 regaling park sparrows. But he would not 

 find much in the way of bird-table or nesting- 

 box in the official parks and gardens. 



