BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



67 



Committee and the Publication Committee 

 on May 26th, at the Society's Offices, 23, 

 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. 



OBITUARY. 



In the death of the Earl of Carhsle the 

 Society loses a Life Member, whose interest 

 was in all good work for the amelioration of 

 the lot of man or animals. His son, the 

 present Earl, has also showTi his sympathy 

 with the E..S.P.B. when presiding at the 

 Cumberland Bird and Tree Festival. 



Mr. Henry Scherren, the biographer of 

 the Zoological Society, who died on AjDril 

 24th, took a friendly and practical interest 

 in Bird Protection, and was always ready to 

 give the Society, of which he was many years 

 a member, the useful information and assist- 

 ance which his zoological knowledge and his 

 connexion with the Press placed in his 

 power. Mr. Schen'en was keenly interested 

 in the anti-plumage question, and it was he 

 A\ ho ran to ground the fable of the Tunisian 

 " Egret Farm," which preceded the Vene- 

 zuelan " garcero." 



Mrs. D. T. Cowan, of Winchester, tliough 

 not an active \\orker for the Society, was a 

 devoted friend of birds and animals, and 

 not only the Council of the Society, but all 

 her fellow-members in Hampshhe, will 

 sympathise with the Director of Education 

 for the county in his loss. Mrs. Cowan died 

 on March 28th. 



One of the most whole-hearted champions 

 of the animal-world. Colonel William Lisle 

 Coulson, died at Newbrough Park, Four- 

 stones, on June 1st. Am-thing in the shape 

 of cruelty was abhorrent to him, and he 

 lectured and sjDoke energetically in public 

 and private schools, on the pubUc platform 

 and in prisons. Long associated Avith the 

 R.S.P.B., he has addressed several of its 

 amiual meetmgs, and some of its pubhcations 

 were ahvays included in the " surprise- 



packets " of literature he delighted to leave 

 with school audiences. Colonel CouLson was 

 head of an old Northumbrian family, and 

 served with the King's Own Scottish 

 Borderers in India and elsewhere. 



BIRD-CATCHING. 

 The Society have again had an Inspector 

 at work in London and the Home Counties 

 during the spring months, for the purposes 

 of visiting the pohce, distributing Bird 

 Protection Notices and Warnings, and investi- 

 gating complaints as to bird-catching and 

 bird-shops. The serious and extensive catch- 

 ing carried on openly in close time seems to 

 be now narro\\ed down, so far as this area 

 is concerned, to a few districts ; and in the 

 outer suburbs generally it goes on only by 

 stealth and on a small scale, the pohce of the 

 MetropoHtan District being alert and active. 

 If the law was as weU understood and en- 

 forced in aU the country districts of England, 

 Wales, and Scotland, the bird-catcher would 

 do little trade in the close season. The 

 difficulty in proving the birds " recently 

 caught," and the definition of this vague 

 phrase, remains, however, a block to proceed- 

 ings when once the birds are in the possession 

 of a dealer. The Inspector had to undergo 

 some rough treatment in a northern suburb, 

 when on the look-out for a gang of catchers, 

 of whom complaints had been received ; he 

 was set upon and knocked doAvn. The men 

 got away and have not yet been arrested, 

 but the Inspector hopes to meet with them 



By permission of Lord Radnor and of 

 the S. E. & C. Railway Company, the two 

 principal landowners, notice-boards have 

 been erected by the R.S.P.B. in the Warren, 

 Folkestone, proliibiting all bird-catching, 

 shooting, and egg-taking. The Warren was 

 the regular haunt of gangs of bird-catchers. 



