90 



NATURE 



[September 23, 1915 



stomach contents examined, it is surprising- how 

 little fruit-pulp is found. Again, if blackbirds are 

 kept in confinement and fed on similar ripe fruit 

 very little is consumed. 



Careful observation and experiment have shown 

 that in most cases where ripe fruit is attacked it is 

 not due to a scarcity of food, and that very much 

 more fruit is damag-ed than eaten. In different 

 parts of the United States it has been found that 

 the provision in orchards of water has consider- 

 ably lessened the damage by birds to the fruit. 



Mr. G. F. Burgess, another correspondent, 

 asks, " If the birds need water, why provide food? 

 If it is food they want, why provide water? It 

 is quite possible," he continues, "that the birds 

 acquired the ' fruit habit ' in times of drought, but 

 the habit is now .so well established that the 

 damage goes on in wet and dry seasons alike." 

 This brings us much nearer the actual truth. A 

 supply of water may keep young birds away from 

 the fruit in times of drought, but once a bird 

 acquires the fruit-eating habit, experience shows 

 that nothing will change it. 



This change of habit in the nature of the food 

 opens a big question, and one around which much 

 controversial matter ranges, but where cases have 

 been subjected to careful investigation by com- 

 petent workers one striking fact has been brought 

 out, viz., that the particular species of bird or 

 birds had been allowed to increase unduly, and Is 

 now too plentiful. This has been proved in the 

 case of the cereal-feeding habit of the rook,i and 

 the fruit-eating habit of the blackbird and missel 

 thrush. 



It seems surprising that, in a country where the 

 question of producing the maximum amount of 

 home-grown food is one of vital Importance, 

 so many economic problems related thereto have 

 been almost entirely neglected. We are offering 

 protection to certain Injurious wild birds and per- 

 mitting other beneficial species to be wantonly 

 destroyed, with the result that food to the value 

 of tens of thousands of pounds sterling, is annu- 

 ally destroyed. That the same thing is taking 

 place in connection with our fisheries there Is good 

 reason to believe. 



In other countries the State has made provision 

 for systematic and continued investigation on the 

 subject, much to Its material benefit, but as a 

 writer has recently very pertinently stated, " In 

 the matter of economic ornithology we in England 

 are disgracefully behind the times ; the Board of 

 Agriculture seemingly prefers to leave this matter 

 to private enterprise, or to deal with the matter 

 in such a perfunctory manner as to be positively 

 ridiculous, making us the laughing-stock of the 

 nations. "2 in the past the want of financial means 

 has been the excuse, but the present apathy can 

 scarcely be due to that cause, seeing the manner 

 in which huge sums are being used out of the 

 Development Grant for far less important pur- 

 poses. 



Walter E. Collinge. 



1 "The Food of Some British Wild Bird^." (London, 1913.) 

 ''' Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1908 (s. 8), vol. ii., p. 132. 



NO. 2395, VOL. 96] 



NOTES. 



Among those who were on board the Royal Edward 

 when she was torpedoed and sunk in the yEgean Sea 

 was Capt. Charles Bertram Marshall. When last 

 seen he was standing on the deck giving orders to 

 his men to keep cool; and he seems to have died as 

 he had lived, a brave, generous, and unselfish man. 

 Although Capt. Marshall had no intention of devoting 

 himself to purely scientific pursuits, he belonged to 

 that too rare class of medical men who, before em- 

 barking upon the practice of their profession, endea- 

 vour to obtain a thorough all-round training in the 

 ancillary sciences and experience in original research. 

 In addition to the customary series of hospital appoint- 

 ments. Dr. Marshall held a demonstratorship in 

 anatomy in Manchester University, and carried out a 

 successful investigation in reference to the movements 

 of the stomach and the chemistry of the digestive 

 processes, for which he received the M.D. degree 

 with commendation. He was a man of exceptional 

 ability and charm of character, and he gave promise 

 of accomplishing much in the advancement of the 

 science of medicine. 



We regret to see the announcement that Lieut. 

 J. A. Dixon was killed at the Dardanelles on 

 August 9. After a first season's work in Nubia, he 

 took part in the expeditions sent to Abydos in Upper 

 Egypt by the Egypt Exploration Fund in the winters 

 1909-10 and 1910-11, in the capacity of draughtsman 

 and assistant excavator. The illustrations of the 

 volumes dealing with those expeditions are a sufficient 

 testimony to the amount and quality of his work. 

 His ambition, however, was to make a name for 

 himself in the field of copying in water colours the 

 scenes which adorn the rock tombs of Thebes, and 

 his first efforts in this direction had met with consider- 

 able success. In the desert camp, where the qualities 

 of a man are tried to the utmost, he was a keen 

 worker and a bright and frank companion, generous 

 to the last degree. He loved Egypt and everything in 

 it, from the luxury of a Cairo hotel to the discomfort 

 of the excavator's camp. His treatment of natives 

 was ideal : sympathetic, just and friendly, and yet 

 with that background of firmness which too many 

 Europeans lack, but which is, in truth, the only pass- 

 port to the respect and admiration of the Arab. Since 

 1912 he had been connected with the expeditions of 

 Mr. Wellcome in the Sudan, but there is little doubt 

 that his heart was in Egypt proper, and that, had he 

 lived, he would have contrived to return to his paint- 

 ing among the Theban tombs. 



Mr. Claude Grahame- White and Mr. Harry Harper 

 contribute to the Fortnightly Review for September 

 an interesting account of "Zeppelin Airships: their 

 Record in the War." It is refreshing to find an 

 article on aircraft, especially Zeppelin airships, which 

 is not full of that nonsense which the present con- 

 flict has inspired in overflowing measure. A highly- 

 complex technical problem such as the airship pre- 

 sents is not readily made clear to the lay mind, and 

 the authors of this article give only slight space to 

 a discussion of technical questions of construction. 



