June, 1911. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



237 



(3) There is ample evidence to show that, with the present 



large nnnibers of rool<s. a grain diet is preferred. 



(4) So far as the evidence of this enquiry shows, the rook is 



not a particularly beneficial bird to the agricul- 

 turist, although its usefulness might be consideralily 

 increased were it fewer in numbers. 



This is even more condemnatory of the rook than the figures 

 which are given in the Transactions of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society for 1896, as the result of investigations 

 made by Sir John Gihnourin Fifeshire. Daring one year, about 

 thirty rooks were shot and examined each month — three 

 hundred and fifty-five birds in all — and it was found that 

 eighty-one per cent, of their food was cereal grain and husk, 

 with insect and grub : also that grain and husk were at least 

 as frequently met with as insects and grubs. It is stated that 

 grain and husk is above everything the food of the rook, and 

 that a general crusade throughout the countrv should be 

 waged against rooks and rookeries. 



On the other side Mr. Robert Newstead's opinion is that the 

 rook is, on the whole, decidedly beneficial, though quite 

 omnivorous and a great destroyer of grain. {The Food of 

 some British Birds, 1908.) 



The rook is scheduled, along with the starling and chaffinch, 

 as the subject of the first enquiry by the Economic Orni- 

 thological Committee of the British Association as to the food 

 of birds, and, from this, further reliable data and facts maybe 

 e.\pected to be forthcoming ere long. 



DECREASE IN THE CORN-CRAKE OR LAND- 

 RAIL iCREX PRATEXSIS).— In recent numbers of The 

 Zoologist, correspondents have been giving instances of 

 changes or fluctuations in the numbers and distribution of 

 some of our commoner birds. To the present writer the most 

 interesting case is that of the Corn-crake. Within the last 

 few years he has had some opportunity of comparing, by field 

 observations, the bird-life of the Home Counties with that of 

 the West of Scotland, and. as regards the Corn-crake (a most 

 familiar species in the last-named district), he has only once 

 heard it in the course of many outings each season in 

 Middlese.v, Herts and Bucks. That was on 5th June. 1910, 

 near Great Missenden. Bucks. This is so greatly at variance 

 with the statements made in local bird-books, that some 

 explanation or fresh examination seemed necessary. This has 

 been forthcoming in some details from the various contributors 

 to Tlic Zoologist, who unite in agreeing that ihis bird, once 

 abundant and common, must now be considered scarce over a 

 wide area including Berks and the Thames Valley, Oxford- 

 shire, Bedfordshire, Staffordshire, Surrey and Hants. It is, in 

 one way, consolatory to the present writer to find Mr. O. V. 

 Aplin, author of "The Birds of Oxfordshire," (18891, saying 

 that he heard the Corn-crake at Bloxham, in 1910, but had 

 not done so since 1904. 



The scarcity is attributed to destruction of the birds and 

 their nests by mowing-machines, by birds being killed by flying 

 into telegraph and telephone wires, by unseason.able summers 

 and by wetter meadows along the Thames and its tributaries. 

 But the question may well be asked why the species holds its 

 own in the West of Scotland, where such conditions are quite 

 as prevalent as elsewhere in the country. 



THE RED GROUSE ON THE CONTINENT.— This 

 typical British species Lagopus scoticus seems now 

 to have obtained a secure footing on the Hohe Venn, 

 an elevated region of moorland situated along the 

 Germano-Belgian frontier. South of Spa. The first 

 introductions were made in 1893, but were unsuccessful. 

 In August, 1894, fifty pairs were imported, and by the 

 following autumn they had spread all over the locality 

 named. In 1901, it was estimated that there were one 

 thousand birds in the two " Kreise " of Malmedy and 

 Montjoin. Professor W. Somerville, who gives this informa- 

 tion in Tlie Ihis (April, 1911, page 368), flushed a strong 

 covey in a short walk over the moor in September last. 



A NEW BRITISH BIRD.— Fair Isle has again yielded an 

 addition to our avi-fauna, Mr. Wm. Eagle Clarke reporting in 



the current number of the Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History (page 70) that an example of Blyth's Reed-Warhler 

 iAcrocephahis (?;(;);t'Hior!(;») was obtained there in September, 

 1910. This species resembles the Reed-Warbler, and Marsh- 

 Warbler closely in colouration, and very careful comparison is 

 required to distinguish these three forms. It is eastern in 

 range and is not known to have occurred pr iously west of 

 St. Petersburg. 



WHITE STORK BREEDING IN THE - ZOt)," 

 LONDON. — A pair of White Storks (Cicouia alba), which 

 were placed in the sea-gulls' aviary about a year ago, built a 

 nest there on the ground, laid three eggs, and after twenty- 

 eight days' incubation, hatched one egg on the 1st May. The 

 young bird seemed doing well some days thereafter, and it is 

 hoped may be successfully reared, as this is the first time this 

 species has bred in the Zoo. 



COLLI-CTING AND PROTECTING BIRDS OF 

 PARADISE. — A great collector describes in the current 

 number of The Ibis (.April, 1911, pages 350-367) sixteen new 

 species and sub-species of Birds of Paradise published since 

 1898. and also gives a complete revised list of all the known 

 birds of this group. This makes a considerable addition to 

 our knowledge, the information being given for high scientific 

 purposes and for the advancement of knowledge. Trinomials 

 are largely used, and such names occur as Lycocorax 

 pyrrhopterus pyrrhopterus (Bp.). 



.■\ bird "collected," either scientifically or unscientifically, is 

 accounted for in a final and effective method, although its 

 remains may be treasured in a museum, and it is something of 

 a coincidence that the same number of Tlie Ibis (page 403) 

 contains a plea for preserving Paradise-Birds "from the utter 

 extinction which will certainly befall them unless some steps 

 are taken to guard them from destruction." This remark is 

 made in commending the action of Sir William Ingram, who 

 has acquired the island of Little Tobago, West Indies, for the 

 purpose of an experiment in acclimatizing Paradise- Birds. 

 This is an uninhabited island, except for the keeper who has 

 been placed upon it to look after the forty-eight living 

 examples of Paradisea apoda, brought from the Am Islands 

 and set free on Little Tobago. We trust that the experiment 

 will command success and shall look forward to hearing of 

 satisfactory results. 



THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 

 EXPEDITION TO THE SNOW MOUNTAINS OF 



NEW GUINEA. — The members of this expedition are now 

 all returning home, and were to sail from Singapore on 5th 

 May. Insurmountable difficulties have prevented complete 

 success attending their efforts, but they attained the top of the 

 first great mountain-range near the snows ; and considerable 

 collections of birds, mammals, and other objects, have been 

 made, which are expected to yield valuable scientific results. 

 A number of letters from the leader, Capt. Rawling. appear in 

 Country Life (iOth May, pages 719-23). 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 



By C. E. Kenneth Mees, D.Sc, F.C.S., F.R.P.S. 



THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S 

 EXHIBITION. — The Fifty-sixth .Annual Exhibition of the 

 Royal Photographic Society was opened on May 9th, at 

 Prince's Skating Club. Knightsbridge, W. 



The Exhibition of pictures was of considerable interest, the 

 general collection being augmented by a special loan collection 

 of photographs of His Majesty, King Edward VII. a number 

 being lent by Her Majesty Queen Alexandra. 



The Pictorial Section was generally considered to be a 

 satisfactory and representati\e display, and an interesting new 

 experiment was the Section for General Photography, in which 

 the pictures were selected for their technical merit. 



While some very fine work was shown in this Section, 

 notably Dr. Thurstan Holland's photograph of the Bernese 

 Oberland. one cannot help feeling th.at far more first-class 



