EDITORIAL NOTES 35 



that Act comes again under revision, the close season 

 should be extended to include that month. 



At the Annual General Meeting of the British Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union, held in London on 8th March, Dr W. Eagle 

 Clarke was presented with the Godman-Salvin Gold Medal 

 in recognition of his work on bird migration. The Medal 

 was founded by the Union in 1919 to commemorate two 

 distinguished ornithologists, Mr du Cane Godman, and his 

 fellow-traveller, Mr Salvin. It falls to be "given from time 

 to time for distinguished Ornithological work," and that on 

 the occasion of its first presentation Dr Eagle Clarke 

 should have been chosen as recipient is striking testimony 

 to the recognition gained by his long-continued and valuable 

 investigations on the migrations of birds. 



* -* * * 



Owing to the extensive outbreak of foot-and-mouth 

 disease amongst cattle, much publicity has been given to 

 the idea that birds may be the carriers of the unknown 

 organism which is the cause of the disease. But the allega- 

 tions are vague, and we only gather that birds unknown 

 carry infection from the much-infected continental areas. In 

 the absence of any vestige of proof, we can safely ignore 

 the suggestion, until it has been shown that a definite and 

 consistent association links the migrations of birds from 

 Central Europe with outbreaks of the disease ; and at 

 present we see no evidence of such an association. 



* *- * * 



We regret to announce that Charles M'Intosh, of 

 Inver, a well-known Perthshire naturalist, passed away 

 on 5th January last at the ripe age of 82. Mr M'Intosh 

 was a man of humble origin, having been a rural post- 

 runner in the Strathbraan district for many years, and was 

 entirely self-taught, yet he became an accomplished naturalist. 

 He was a keen observer of bird-life, and was of much 

 assistance to the late Dr Harvie-Brown and the late Col. 

 Drummond Hay in their investigations regarding the birds 

 of the Tay Basin. But it was as a botanist, and especially 



