NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
37 
Nightjar sitting Crosswise ? — A very interesting point has been 
menlioned to me by a young naturalist friend of mine as to whether the useful 
and interesting nightjar does always sit lengthwise on the branch of a tree or 
elsewhere and not crosswise as birds in general do ? My friend — in whose 
observations I have great faith — tells me he has many times seen the bird sitting 
crosswise / I have made a special study of the nightjar and his observations are 
certainly quite new to me. Will the readers of Nature Notes who have seen 
this bird perching to any extent let me have their experiences. 
5, Glenferrie Koaii, St. Albans, W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
Herts, November 19, 1900. 
The Cornish Chough. — That this handsome and interesting bird runs the 
risk of being exterminated, as Mr. Arthur W. Hext flarvey writes, there can be 
no doubt. And every bird that is at all rare, especially if it be beautiful, is sure 
to be exterminated if those stupid, ignorant, miserable persons with or without 
guns are allowed to procure specimens and collect subjects for museums, large or 
small. This year I saw reported in a local newspaper that some fool had seen a 
hoopoe in Devonshire and secured it. A hundred years ago the.se birds were 
quite common. The golden oriole is never seen or heard now in Cornwall, nor 
could it be a visitor without being shot, stuffed, and put into a glass case by some 
idiotic person who flatters himself he knows a trifle about birds. The true 
student of bird life wants to see them alive amongst their trees and flowers, 
singing, feeding, nesting, and displaying their plumage. The Wild Birds’ 
Protection Act, 1880, included the Cornish chough in the schedule of birds to 
be protected, but that Act only protected them during the close season, that is 
from the 1st day of March to the 1st day of August. The subsequent Acts, 
1881, 1894, and 1896, extend protection to the eggs of birds, authorise County 
Councils to add other birds to the schedule, and to prolong the close time to the 
whole of the year. It would therefore appear that the Cornwall County Council 
can protect the Cornish chough, and I feel quite sure they would be willing to 
do so. County Councils have been intrusted with the powers of these Wild 
Birds’ Protection Acts, and each County Council has its schedules of protected 
birds both as to close times and as to eggs. These schedules are curious reading, 
and I find, taking the date 1897 from Okds Game Laws, fourth edition, that 
Cornwall prohibited the taking the eggs of the Cornish chough only, whereas 
Devon prohibited the taking of eggs of seventy-six birds, and extended the close 
time of forty-five birds to August 31. But if these Acts are not put in force of 
what use are they ? The police are pretty sharp in running in persons for various 
petty offences, sleeping out of doors, for instance, persons not having any visible 
means of existence (ridiculed by Punch), and other offences having attractions for 
the police mind. Who, however, ever heard of anyone being run in for taking 
the eggs of a Cornish chough, or for shooting a hoopoe, a nightingale, a golden 
oriole, or any bird at all ? The County Councils ought to .see that their orders 
are enforced, and if one or two of these blackguards (they fully deserve the name), 
who shoot or secure rare birds, are run in, fined, and held up to the contempt of 
the public, the Cornish chough, the hoopoe, possibly the golden oriole, with 
many others, would be common birds. The nightingale might come farther west 
if he were let alone, but he excites the fervour of the idiot who secures him as a 
specimen, which occurred somewhere. 
Woodtown, Horrabridge, W. F. Coi.LIER. 
S. Devon, November 20, 1900. 
The Chough. — Respecting the note under “ Selborniana ” (page 203) in 
the last issue it may interest Mr. Harvey and others to know that this interesting 
bird is one of the most characteristic of the cliff scenery of Ireland, and “in no 
country probably does it flourish in its natural strongholds more undisturbed ” 
(“The Birds of Ireland,” by R. J. Ussher and Robert Warren). Thus, although 
it is to be much regretted that in Cornwall the chough is rapidly diminishing, it 
is pleasurable to learn that in the land of the .Shamrock this interesting member 
of the crow tribe is more than holding its own. I understand that in Cornwall 
the barbarous pole-trap is employed to catch the choughs when they are feeding 
on the shore at low water, and that they are also driven away from their haunts 
by the ever-increasing jackdaws. 
5, Glenferrie Road, St. Albans, W. Percival Westeli., M.B.O.U. 
Herts, November 19, 1900. 
