BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



95 



islet and shot sitting birds for sport, leaving the 



bodies to rot and the broods to perish. 



" Take egging as an example . . With the 

 nineteenth century came the white-man market 

 " eggers," systematically taking or destroying 

 every egg in every place they visited. Halifax, 

 Quebec and other towns were the centre of the 

 trade . . . The game laws of Quebec distinctly 

 state : ' It is forbidden to take nests or eggs of wild 

 birds at any time.' But the swarms of fishermen 

 who come up the north side of the St. Lawrence 

 egg wherever they go . . Sometimes three, four, five, 

 or even ten times as many, are thrown away as are 

 kept, and all those bird-lives lost for nothing . . 

 When we remember how many thousands of men 

 visit the shore, and that the resident population 

 eggs on its own account, we need not be prophets 

 to foresee the inevitable end of all bird-life when 

 subjected to such a drain. And tiiis is on the St. 

 Lawrence, where there are laws and wardens and 

 fewer fishermen. What about the Atlantic Labrador 

 where there are no laws, no wardens, many more 

 fishermen, and ruthless competitive egging between 

 residents and visitors ? Of course, where people 

 must egg or starve there is nothing more to be said. 

 But this sort of egging is very limited. It is the 

 utterly wanton destruction that is the real trouble." 



" Bulletin of the British Oknithologists' 

 Club." (London, Witherby & Co.). The sixth of 

 the Migration Reports issued by the Migration Com- 

 mittee of the B.O.C., and edited by Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, is, like its predecessors, a valuable addition 

 to exact knowledge on this subject ; and the 

 majority of students will agree with the wisdom 

 of the Committee in resolving to collect observa- 

 tions for ten years before an attempt is made to 

 generalize or argue from facts in hand. The 

 present volume covers the autumn migration of 

 1909 and the spring migration of 1910, with maps 

 and details respecting some thirty species, and 

 summaries in the case of others ; and also records 

 of the weather throughout the three months of 

 the spring immigration. The average length of 

 time of arrival covered by one species is five or six 

 weeks ; the first to arrive was a Chiffchaf? in 

 Somerset on March 5th, and the latest were Spotted 

 Flycatchers at Carmarthen on the remarkably late 

 date of June 5th. A Wryneck, seen in Cornwall 

 on March 26th, is thought possibly to have wintered 

 there. 



" Birds and Birds' Xests of Broomsgrove." 

 By A. Mayall (London, Witherby & Co., 2/- net). 

 In this mipretending little volume, Mr. Mayall gives 

 not only a useful list of birds of the neighbourhood, 

 but supplements it with over forty charming 

 photographs, mainly of nests and eggs. Through 

 the kindness of the writer and his publisher, two 



illustrations of Mr. Mayall's skill are reproduced 

 as a frontispiece to this number of " Bird Notes and 

 News," the one of a nesting-box, such as is supplied 

 by the R.S.P.B., the other of a Magpie's nest. 

 Of habitual breeding-birds, the writer names 78 ; 

 occasional breeders, 4 (Grey and Yellow Wagtails, 

 Pied Flycatcher, and Woodcock) ; occasional visitor 

 23 (including Scalvonian Grebe, Waxwing, and 

 Lesser Woodpecker) ; and rare visitors, 33. It 

 would have been well to add when these last-named 

 were observed. 



" My Bird Love." By Isa Postgate. (London, 

 G. Bell & Sons; Is.). This dainty little .story, 

 daintily got up, of the friendship of two wild Robins 

 for the writer, has the double merit of being both 

 touching and true. It would make a pretty and 

 appropriate Christmas gift. 



" Report of the Rome S.P.C.A." The first 

 English report issued by this Society, published this 

 year (54 Piazza di Spagna), embraces the years 

 1907-8-9, and shows how much excellent work, as 

 difficult as it is needed, has been done by Mr. 

 Leonard Hawksley and his co-workers. Among 

 the convictions may be mentioned the dealers of 

 forty blinded song-birds, and the vendor of twenty- 

 six Quails blinded to act as decoys, and also the 

 confiscation of numerous rods (for catching swallows) 

 traps, and catapults. 



Talks about Birds. By Frank Firm (London. 

 Adam & Charles Black, 63.). Mr. Finn's lively 

 and entertaining chapters on such subjects as 

 "Birds at School," "Birds that Keep Order," 

 "Fagging in the Bird World," " Bir I Adven- 

 turers," etc., seem admirably qualified to fulfil 

 their object — that of interesting young people 

 (perhaps old ones also) in the varied activities and 

 characteristics of birds of many different species. 

 Some bird-lovers may find it pathetic to read of 

 the efforts of caged raven and crow to " play " &s 

 an enlivenment to their imprisonment in Battersea 

 Park, and of RedpoUs learning cage " tricks " ; 

 but otherwise Mr. Finn's matter is as pleasant and 

 attractive as his style, and the illustrations and 

 get-up of the vohune are in accord with both. 



The Life of the Cojimon Gull, told in Photo- 

 graps. By C Rubow (London, Witherby & Co., 

 Is. 6d. net). Messrs. Witherby have done well to 

 publish an English translation of this charming 

 Danish study of the GuU, with its twenty-five 

 admirable photographs and sympathetic letterpress. 



