BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



93 



Europe in wet and cold seasons they would stay in 

 Africa. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild wished to emphasize 

 the fact that a more important factor in bird pre- 

 servation than the mere restriction of the pursuit 

 of specimens, lay in the provision of abundant 

 nesting facilities, the growth of hedges, pro- 

 tection of small breeding areas, and so on. At 

 the same time he thought that where certain birds 

 were unduly threatened and in danger of becoming 

 exterminated, strict laws should be passed. Where, 

 however, a species had reached the actual verge 

 of extermination, legislative restriction should not 

 apply, for if a species must die out the last 

 specimens had better be secured for museums 

 in order that the form should not be utterly lost 

 to science, and therefore the putting into force 

 of Bird Protection Acts should be, he considered, 

 in the hands of competent game wardens and not 

 in those of the police. 



This tenet brought up some hot dissentients. 

 Mr. C. Collier observed that the great skua would 

 probably have been rendered extinct if " collected " 

 on these lines ; to which Mr. Rothschild replied 

 that he referred only to species doomed to total 

 extinction, not to those which might be reinforced 

 from other countries. Mr. Southwell quoted the 

 case of the bearded tit, and wanted to know how 

 and by whom the decision was to be made that a 

 species was on the verge of extermination, and 

 that the remainder were to be secured for the 

 museums. Mr. Rothschild declared himself the 

 last man to support the extermination of species ; 

 he alluded merely to those inevitably doomed to 

 disappear. 



Baron von Berlepsch strongly advocated the 

 provision of shelters and nesting-boxes, and of 

 window food in winter time, mentioning inci- 

 dentally that he had two thousand nesting-boxes on 

 his estate. Dr. Quinet urged that it was a mistake 

 to attempt to divide useful from injurious birds, 

 in our present condition of ignorance as to the 

 utility of insects and the food of birds ; and 

 Mr. W. P. Pycraft declared that the truth as to 

 what composed the main food of birds could never 

 be accurately known until systematic examination 

 of the stomachs was undertaken by the Board of 

 Agriculture. 



Dr. Drewitt, the Rev. H. N. Bonar (East 

 Lothian) and other members also spoke, and the 

 debate was wound up by Sir John Cockburn, who 

 humorously deplored the disappearance of old 

 superstitions which conduced to bird protection. 

 In old times, he remarked, it was thought unlucky 



to put the whole of an estate under cultivation, 

 without leaving a wild patch to conciliate the 

 brownies, who would otherwise be driven away. 

 We knew now the real meaning and intent of that 

 belief which was that a reserve should always be 

 maintained for wild creatures ; and it was a great 

 pity that we had moved backwards in this matter 

 of reserves. Mr. Lemon had hit the right nail 

 on the head when he referred to the necessity of 

 education of the people. He had been struck 

 by the extraordinary tameness of the birds in 

 Holland, where avocets and other species prac- 

 tically exterminated in England were to be seen 

 walking about within twenty yards of houses and 

 farmsteads. No one molested them ; the children 

 found the nests but did not take the eggs. 



Economic Ornithology. 



The principal paper in this section (bracketed in 

 the Congress programme with Bird Protection) 

 was the report on " Investigation of the Food of 

 Birds since 1900," contributed by the learned and 

 enthusiastic delegate of the Hungarian Ornitho- 

 logical Central Office, Dr. Otto Herman. Unfor- 

 tunately it was read in the language of its author, 

 so that the majority of the Congress could benefit 

 little. The study of birds from both the scientific 

 and the economic standpoint is systematically and 

 carefully pursued in Hungary, under State en- 

 couragement, as was demonstrated by a pamphlet 

 on the utility of the rook circulated (happily in an 

 English translation) at the Congress. The Hun- 

 garian experiments, and the cases of food taken 

 from the bodies of rooks at different times of the 

 year, which were exhibited, go to prove that the 

 bird destroys countless insect pests in the autumn 

 and early spring, when the majority of our insecti- 

 vorous birds are in their winter quarters, and only 

 pulls up green stuff which has been attacked by 

 injurious larvae. 



Herr Igali's paper on the virtues and vices of 

 the house-sparrow as affecting agriculture was 

 briefly summarised by Dr. Penrose. It had nothing 

 to say in favour of the species, which was accused 

 of driving away useful insectivorous birds. 



Birds in Captivity. 



Mr. Seth-Smith, of the Avicultural Society, read 

 a paper on the importance of aviculture as an 

 aid to the study of ornithology. He contended 

 that too much attention was given to dead forms, 

 and that in such aviaries as permitted birds to live 

 under natural conditions, it was possible to observe 

 every condition of life except migration, In many 



