14 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway was accord- 

 ingly communicated with, and in turn disclaim the 

 imputation, stating that fires caused by engine sparks 

 are very rare, and adding : 



" We are very anxious to avoid any destruction to 

 property or to wild birds by the burning of the grass, 

 and the engines working the trains are fitted with the 

 most approved apparatus for the arrest of sparks from 

 the engine fires. It is not an uncommon thing for our 

 people at Barry to see fires burning at a great distance 

 from the railway line, and these fires are no doubt 

 caused by people wandering about on the Links, which, 

 as perhaps you are aware, are practically open to the 

 public." 



EGG-COLLECTING BY SCHOOLBOYS. 



The following letter was sent to the Headmasters of 

 public schools last spring, by the Hon. and Rev. Canon 

 Lyttelton, Chairman of the Headmasters' Conference and 

 Headmaster of Haileybury. 



"Dear Headmaster, — Not long ago I received an 

 urgent appeal from the Birds' Protection Society in regard 

 to the practice of schoolboys buying birds' nests and eggs 

 from country boys in the neighbourhood. If this practice 

 once becomes at all common in a school the result is a 

 widespread destruction of young bird life. The country 

 boys bring in a nest full of nestlings or eggs, and a 

 schoolboy supposes that as the harm is done he may as 

 well buy a nest, not thinking that every such purchase 

 leads to many more nests being destroyed. 



" It has been found where this evil has been checked, 

 that a single prohibition is of no use. Every spring, at 

 least, the boys need a strong reminder that any purchase 

 of this kind constitutes a serious offence, otherwise the 

 new generation of younger boys start the practice in total 

 ignorance of what it means. 



" I am authorised by the Committee to ask you to co- 

 operate with the Society in its beneficent work by dealing 

 with this matter in your own school." 



In connection with this subject a good lead is given by 

 the Rev. A. L. Hussey, formerly of Folkestone. Mr. 

 Hussey, who has retired from active scholastic work to a 

 pleasant country house in a beautiful neighbourhood, 

 makes it a rule that all boys staying with him "must 

 abstain from birds-nesting, egg-collecting, and catapults." 



Preservation of Woodcock.— At a meeting of the 

 Field Sports Protection Association, at Limmer's Hotel, 

 in June, the Earl of Abercorn described the difficulties 

 encountered in preserving woodcock on his Irish estate. 

 He never allowed the birds to be shot after the close of 

 the shooting season, but they did not return in the 

 numbers looked for. Mr. Harting explained that in 

 some parts of Europe, notably Germany and Denmark, 

 the birds were shot on their spring migrations ; and the 

 meeting unanimously agreed that efforts should be made 

 to obtain an international agreement among sportsmen 

 not to kill woodcock in spring. The woodcock is 

 scheduled in the Act of 1880, and the killing of it in the 

 United Kingdom during the Close Time by any person 

 is, therefore, prohibited under a possible penalty of £1 

 per bird. 



THE LAW AND THE COLLECTOR. 



A correspondent having written to the Times deploring 

 the absence of any provision in the Wild Birds' Protection 

 Acts to enable collectors to kill or take wild birds during 

 the breeding season "for scientific purposes," Colonel 

 L. Howard Irby writes in the Saturday Review (July 

 1 8th) :— 



" It seems to me that it would be a great misfortune if 

 the Wild Birds' Protection Act was relaxed in the slightest 

 degree. Unlike the vast districts of the United States 

 and Canada, we with our small territorial extent cannot 

 afford to allow our rare, and fast becoming rarer, birds to 

 be killed even to gratify the ' scientific purposes ' of 

 private collectors, who will give foolish and fabulous 

 prices for British specimens ; consequently the law is 

 constantly evaded and broken. For instance, at the last 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, two pratin- 

 coles, shot near Romney for the benefit of a private 

 collector, were exhibited with pride, as the first of the 

 genus obtained in the County of Kent. One of these 

 birds was of a species new to the so-called British list. 



"At the same meeting, a nest and eggs of the blue- 

 headed wagtail, taken near Winchelsea, were exhibited, 

 a thoughtful way of encouraging this common Continental 

 bird to increase in this country. These birds and eggs 

 are in the schedule as forbidden to be destroyed. What 

 is there in such useless conduct to aid science, or of what 

 scientific value are these British specimens ? 



" Furthermore, some persons annually go to the north 

 of Scotland to harry every egg they can find both of pro- 

 tected and unprotected birds, and these eggs are con- 

 signed to dealers or sold to private collectors. 



' ' Not only do birds suffer, but our rarer butterflies are 

 fast being exterminated. As those which are rare are 

 usually local, in many districts they have disappeared, 

 never to return. Such also is the fate of our local and rare 

 plants, ruthlessly torn up and eradicated by 'botanists.' 



" It is to be regretted that these persons do not expend 

 their energies in some innocuous form of collecting, such 

 as postage stamps or walking sticks. 



' ' I hope you may lend your valuable aid to stop such 

 futile destruction by those who ought to be called orni- 

 thophobists instead of ornithologists ; the motto of the 

 latter should be 'Observation without destruction.' " 



In support of Colonel Irby's remonstrance, Mr. Frank 

 C. H. Borrett wrote to the same paper, August 22nd : 



" I know enough of the egg-collector never to wish to 

 see one iota of the Wild Birds' Protection Acts relaxed 

 in his favour, but rather to see their provisions stringently 

 enforced against him —unfortunately a most difficult thing 

 to do. Only too often he is an unmitigated evil, and 

 stops at nothing when the collecting mania is on him. 



" For whom does the paid egg-snatcher work, and the 

 game-keeper with his infinite opportunities of destruction 

 of birds and their eggs ? It is to be hoped that people 

 are yearly becoming more suspicious and jealous of col- 

 lectors, and are beginning to stand up for their rights in 

 wild birds. I think recent legislation shows this. A 

 month ago I came across a man in a western county who 

 is employed by a well-meaning society* to protect the 

 eggs of a certain rare bird. This wretch, who calls him- 

 self a variety collector, has, it appears, for two years and 

 more been robbing the county of many of its rarest birds' 

 eggs, whilst very indifferently protecting those especially 

 confided to his care. 



" The variety collector of eggs is a man who will take 



* Not the Society for Protection of Birds. 



