BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



15 



ten, twenty, fifty, any number of eggs of the same kind 

 of bird, provided they differ one from another in size, 

 colour, or marking. Can anything be more reprehen- 

 sible ? Is it for such that the provisions of the Acts 

 should be relaxed ? " 



" Incidentally our efforts to protect the kite have 

 brought to light other details of the war of extinction 

 now being waged by the dealer and his patrons. We 

 hear of thirty-seven eggs of the common buzzard taken 

 from Wales as the proceeds of a single raid ; of a hundred 

 eggs of the chough taken last year from a single Irish 

 island ; of £2 10s. offered by a Yorkshire naturalist for 

 a single clutch of stone curlew . . . I trust that English 

 collectors may be led to see how discreditable a thing it 

 is to be instrumental in the extinction of a British species." 

 — R. J. Ussher in the Zoologist, June, 1903. 



[It is to be regretted that the efforts of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club to protect the kites' nests in Wales 

 this year have been unsuccessful. One subscriber to the 

 fund even received from a dealer an offer of British kites' 

 eggs taken this spring.] 



BIRDS RELEASED IN LONDON. 



The following has been communicated to us by Mr. 

 Frank Finn, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



"Those interested in our London bird-life may like to 

 hear of the release of some interesting birds there during 

 the present year. These were a pair of the large yellow- 

 breasted Black-headed Bunting (Emberiza vielanocephala) 

 and twelve Rosy Pastors {Pastor roseits), both examples 

 of rare species which are shot down whenever they 

 naturally occur by collectors ; and, among more ordinary 

 English birds, a pair of Greenfinches, a pair of Black- 

 caps and two young birds, three Great Tits, a Nightingale, 

 and a Crossbill. Of course I have no news of any of 

 these birds, except that the Rosy Pastors have stayed 

 about St. James' Park for some time, but if any of them 

 return to London and bring friends I shall deem the 

 experiment well worth making. At the same time I do 

 not recommend anyone to turn out such birds as Blackcaps 

 and Nightingales ; I did it more out of compassion for 

 their captivity than anything else, and expect that they 

 went away and never returned. But the other stronger 

 and more omnivorous species will be very likely to be 

 induced to colonize London by repeated liberations, while 

 in the case of rarities one has the consolation of knowing 

 that one is filling up the gaps made among our rare 

 visitors by the unscientific rapacity of collectors." 



The Cormorant and Shag. 



"The Fisheries Committee of the Cornwall County 

 Council have passed a resolution to petition the Home 

 Secretary to exclude cormorants and shags from the 

 protection of the Acts. One hopes they will not meet 

 with success, since, after all, the amount of real injury 

 done by these birds is comparatively small, and if guns 

 were allowed on our coasts in close time we should very 

 soon lose the few rare birds left to us. The Cornish 

 Chough, for instance, is almost extinct, and the premium 

 at which both eggs and living bird stand threatens its 

 complete extermination at no distant date. . . . Besides, 

 the principle on which the resolution is conceived is 

 entirely wrong. What our deep-sea fisheries require is 

 not the extermination of the birds, but a systematised 

 Stocking with ova." — Country Life, September 12th, 1903. 



ROOKS versus GRUBS. 



" Much loss is being incurred in Scotland this season, 

 especially amongst the barley and oat crops, from the 

 attacks of 'grub.' Under this name are included the 

 leather-jacket and the wireworm, with possibly the larva 

 of the cockchafer, the last-named being identical with the 

 very troublesome ver blanc of French farmers. The 

 leather-jacket, as is well known, is the fleshy legless 

 larva of the daddy-longlegs fly, and the wireworm is the 

 slender six-legged larva of the click beetle. Both live 

 in the larval condition in the soil for several years, feed- 

 ing voraciously on the roots of plants throughout the 

 whole time, and thus doing much mischief to the young 

 crops. The increase of ' grub ' now complained of is 

 attributed in some quarters to the extensive destruction 

 of rooks in recent years. Like certain other creatures, 

 the rook is sometimes the friend and at other times the 

 foe of the husbandman ; and it is not easy to strike a 

 balance either in favour of or against this exceedingly 

 wily bird. The depredations of the ' grub ' across the 

 border find a parallel this season in the ravages of slugs 

 and snails in England in both field and garden, seedlings 

 of all kinds having been swept off time after time by 

 these night marauders." — Times Agricultural Article, 

 June 8, 1903. 



"For some years now the farmers have been waging 

 war against rooks and crows, and they spend time and 

 ammunition in order to protect themselves from the 

 ravages of the crow family. And success seems to have 

 crowned their efforts, and the early-sown corn is no 

 longer said to be put in for the crows {Anglice, rooks), 

 nor are our potato fields devastated as they used to be. 

 But the crow had his uses, and although he abused his 

 privileges he is being missed at the present moment. A 

 Cairnie (Aberdeenshire) farmer is reported as having 

 exclaimed, as he viewed the myriads of grub on his corn 

 fields, " Aw wus Aw had a thousan' craws ! " Ay, that 

 is it ! The corn crop will be almost a dead failure on 

 some fields because of the ravages of grub, and the crow 

 would have been very useful now in making some meals oft 

 the grub." — Aberdeen Weekly Free Press, May 30, 1903. 



"If the birds were destroyed it is very doubtful 

 whether after ten years a farmer or gardener could possibly 

 bring any crop to maturity." — Ontario Agriculttiral 

 College Bulletin 124. (Published by Ontario Department 

 of Agriculture. ) . . 



It has been suggested that at Harvest Thanksgiving 

 Services preachers might appropriately say a word in 

 favour of bird protection. 



County Council Orders. 



Monmouthshire has obtained an Order dated June 10th, 

 1903. [E.F.] 



Further Orders for the following Counties have been 

 granted : — 



Devonshire, dated July 8th, 1903. [A.B.C.D.E.F.] 

 Lincoln (Holland), dated July 9th, 1903. [C] 

 Lincoln (Lindsey), dated August 27th, 1903. [B.C.E.F.] 

 Buckinghamshire, dated August 28th, 1903. [B.F.S.] 

 Liverpool, dated Sept. 14th, 1903. [F.] 

 Southampton (Hampshire), dated Sept. 15th, 1903. 

 [B.D.E.F.S.] 



