198



Correspondence.



least to all true lovers of nature. Certainly there are the somewhat belated

police notices, setting forth the provisions and penalties of the “ Protection of

Wild Birds’ Acts,” but these do not usually appear until some time later in the

season when a great deal of damage has already been done. For during March

and April many of the commoner birds are already busy with their nests which,

owing to the scanty foliage as yet grown upon hedge and tree, are more easily

detected. And even when these notices do appear very little attention seems to

be paid to them. Might not these bills which emanate, I presume, from the

local police stations, be sent out and posted up earlier, say at the beginning of

March, and might not the local police and others take more active steps to see

that their restrictions are complied with and offenders proceeded against. If

this were done, much of it I think would speedily cease. Then, too, could not the

excellent Society which exists for the prevention of cruelty to animals take under

its wing the cause of birds as well (perhaps it does, I do not know), and be styled

‘‘the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Birds and Animals.” At any rate I

feel that the Society should know of the prevalence of this particular kind of cruelty

and that might with good effect take this matter up. Then, again, there are

the village schools wherein considerable influence might be exerted if the masters

and mistresses would deal definitely with this subject in the early spring with a

view to inculcating in the minds of the young a love rather than a disregard

for the beauties of nature, at the same time warning them against the wicked¬

ness of such wantonness. Quite apart from the desolating results to nature of

this shameless conduct which is so distressing to see, surely the pursuit of this

form of heartlessness, if left unchecked, must needs breed in the character of the

young such habits of cruelty which may, in later years, be put into practice

upon even broader and more serious lines. WILLIAM LAMBERT-BAKER.



NESTING OF QUAKER PARRAKEETS.


SIR,—In the autumn of 1912 I bought a pair of Quaker Parrakeets. These

were confined until the end of 1913 in an aviary with various other Parrots, in¬

cluding two small kinds of Lovebirds, Pennants, Rosellas, as well as two Nepaulese

Blue-pies. The gradual disappearance and death of the smaller Lovebirds caused

me some apprehension. I feared rats, but could not discover means by which

they had made their entry. The Lovebirds vanished one by one, only their two

limbs being found on the floor of the aviary.


One day I found the Pie carrying round a half-dead Budgerigar, so fixed on

them as the culprits and removed them to another aviary. This however had

no effect, for the death roll continued to increase. About a month later, the

gardener hearing sounds of fighting in the aviary ran to the spot and was in time

to witness a savage attack made on a female Cockatiel by the two Quakers, and

from the effects of which she subsequently died, one wing being almost torn off.


This was the only occasion any of us saw or heard anything, and I have

come to the conclusion that in all cases the Quaker set upon the smaller Parrots



