Correspondence.



81



Gallery is described by Mr. Bassett Hill, and Miss J. A. Fletcher

sends some bird-notes from Clevelands, Tasmania. - The subject

of Bird Protection is fully dealt with, the importance of which is

beginning to be thoroughly recognised in Australia ; and various

notes and letters go to make np a very interesting number.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



DESTRUCTION OF BIRD LIFE AT LIGHTHOUSES.


Sir, —The terrible destruction of bird life against the Lighthouses in

the migratory season is sad to contemplate, and yet, I suppose, nothing can

be done, or surely it would have been done before this. Is it known to

many of onr members, I wonder, that tens of thousands of birds of all kinds

meet their death against one lighthouse alone during the year? St.

Catherine’s (Isle of Wight) and Heligoland being particularly fatal. I have

seen literally heaps of them brought in to onr clever naturalist and taxider¬

mist here, Mr. Bristow, for a few specimens to be “ set up ” for collections.

Only yesterday he showed me Meadow Pipits, Gold-crests, Wagtails, White-

throats, Wheatears, Redstarts, Garden Warblers, Blackcaps, Grasshopper

Warblers, Nightingales, Willow Wrens, Chiffchaffs, besides any amount of

Blackbirds, Thrushes, Swallows, Robins, and sea birds of all sorts, indeed

almost every wild bird one could name. Eight}'- had been brought in that

morning alone, all in faultless plumage and condition.


Bird-trappers’destruction is jnst a drop in the ocean compared with

this wholesale slaughter. I understand netting has been tried, but the

swiftness of flight still renders the impact fatal. I did not understand,

however, if it were wire or string netting, which latter might possibly make

all the difference in the world. I should be glad if this appeal would arouse

the sympathy and desire to help onr feathered friends, I myself feel, among

our members. E. A. H. HARl'r.iCY.


St. Helen's Lodge, Hastings.



“THE BREEDING HABITS OF HECK’S CURASSOW.”


Sir, — I have been much interested by Mr. Pocock’s article in the

November Magazine on the breeding of the so-called Heck’s Curassow at

the Zoological Gardens, but surely this is a very loose and unscientific way

of describing the mating of a cock Globose Curassow and a hen Heck’s

Curassow? For even if we grant that they are very nearly allied, they are

at all events distinguished as distinct species, and such a heading is

most misleading, apart from its inaccuracy.


Perhaps I may have misread the article—though I have been through



