8088 



Birds. 



of measures which are being adopted throughout France, not only by the authorities, 

 but likewise by the chief landowners, to prevent the destruction of small birds. An 

 association formed for that purpose at St. Cesaire, in the Charente-Inferieur, has 

 adopted the following resolutions : — " ' 1. None of us, during the year 1862, will either 

 seek to discover birds' nests or to destroy the young birds, in whatever place soever 

 they may be, and under no matter what pretext. 2. None of us will pursue any birds 

 after quitting their nests. 3. The nests of sparrows, chaffinches and linnets may alone 

 be destroyed, these birds being considered mischievous.' It was M. Renon, the 

 parish schoolmaster at St. Cesaire, who drew up these resolutions for his pupils ; but 

 it is expected that on consideration he will strike out the third resolution, which de- 

 clares war against sparrows, chaffinches and linnets, as it is very well known to farmers 

 that they do more service to the crops by destroying the worms than they do injury to 

 fruit trees." I am glad to see that since my first article on this subject appeared in 

 the ' Zoologist' many more have found their way into various leading country journals, 

 and now scarcely a week passes without some interesting statistics appearing. This 

 is what I and all lovers of our feathered races have longed to see. I hope the time is 

 near when these persecuted ones (Nature's intended helpmates) will come and go, 

 and that those who now persecute them will be convinced of their sad mistake, and 

 allow them to rest unmolested. A country walk would then be as in times long past. 

 In the' Cornhill Magazine' for this month (June) is an interesting article on this 

 subject, and by a long series of useful observations the imputations under which many 

 birds laboured have been entirely disproved, and in many cases a bird which was sys- 

 tematically persecuted and killed by the farmers has been shown to be a positive 

 friend to its ignorant murderer ; such birds, for instance, as the rook and crow have been 

 proved to confer immense benefits on the agriculturist, by devouring the subterranean 

 larvae which stealthily consume the roots of the various crops, and are all the more 

 formidable from the invisible nature of their assaults. The woodpecker, fiercely exe- 

 crated as a destroyer of trees, has been proved a right good friend to landowners, 

 feeding itself on minute insects that burrow into the bark or decaying wood, and 

 never chipping out its curious tunnel except in a spot where corruption is begun, and 

 is the sure precursor of death. — S. P. Saville ; Dover House, Cambridge, June 

 13, 1862. 



Protection of Small Birds. — Feeling greatly interested in the preservation of our little 

 birds, and having had occasion some time since to record an instance of their wholesale 

 and indiscriminate slaughter on a property in this neighbourhood, it is with much 

 satisfaction that I observe, in an extract from the ' Norfolk Chronicle ' at Zool. 8027, 

 some deservedly severe strictures on the insane practice among agriculturists of 

 poisoning wheat, or rather small birds, and the forcible appeal therein made to their 

 reasoning powers, which it is to be hoped may have the desired effect, or at least make 

 some repression, though long-rooted prejudices are not removed in a day : however 

 the article referred to will now have the advantage of a wider circulation. A few pages 

 further on the arrival and immediate destruction of that most harmless and interesting 

 of migratory birds the hoopoe is announced. Who will venture to say that hoopoes 

 might not breed if allowed to do so? but if not paired ere arrival there is small chance 

 of their becoming so after. They have generally met with a warm reception in this 

 neighbourhood too, where I have known them to be shot for well-nigh fifty years. 

 What number may be shot annually throughout the country it is impossible to say, as 

 probably not half are recorded. I would recommend to all birdstuflers and ornitholo- 



