A Bird 
Sanctuary. 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
( 2 52 ) 
A Bird Sanctuary 
In the Brent Valley. 
Out in the Brent Valley, secluded from 
the public eye, amid a hundred different 
forms of wild undergrowth, a few nature 
enthusiasts have transformed a leafy 
wood of oak trees into what they truly 
•call a “bird sanctuary.” Here, fenced 
in by a hedge, on strengthening the 
weakest points of which hours of patient 
toil have been spent, all kinds of English 
birds are encouraged to build their nests 
and rear their young undisturbed by the 
hands of youthful vandals and the nets 
of loafing bird-catchers. And now the 
enthusiasts are being rewarded by seeing 
new species of bird-life in and around 
their sacred nineteen acres on which the 
wood stands, and also by the discovery 
of strange insects and new forms of 
plant life. Yet it is not an experiment 
brought to success by the power of a 
lavish purse, but rather by the en¬ 
thusiasm of those in whose minds the 
idea germinated, and by whose hands 
the work has been mostly done. The 
subscriptions last year totalled 
^15 13s. 6d.—not an extravagant sum 
for the care of nineteen acres. 
Better Financial Support. 
This year the financial support is more 
•encouraging, and the Bird Sanctuary 
Committee have been able to “ launch 
out ” a little more. The keeper is 
directly appointed by them instead of, as 
at the outset, by the farmer from whom 
the wood is rented. But so dense is the 
undergrowth over the greater, part of the 
nineteen acres that it is really more than 
one man can do to patrol the whole wood 
effectively, as was evident to one of our 
representatives who was shown round it 
by Mr. Wilfrid M. Webb. Mr. Webb, 
who is the Hon. General Secretary of 
the Selborne Society, is, as he has always 
been, one of the keenest workers on the 
Bird Sanctuary Committee, and looks 
forward with his wife, who acts as 
Treasurer to the fund, to the time when 
two keepers can be employed. Mean¬ 
while the six members of the Committee 
make it a practice to visit the wood 
once a week, or as often as they can. 
Records are being kept of various species 
of bird, plant, insect, and other life 
found there. 
Nesting Birds. 
Primarily, of course, the sanctuary is 
one for birds, and from observations 
principally made by another member of 
the Committee (Mr. R. H. Read), the 
following list has been made of birds 
which are known to have bred in the 
wood:— 
Missel Thrush 
Song Thrush 
Blackbird 
Robin 
Nightingale 
Whitethroat 
Lesser Whitethroat 
Blackcap 
Garden Warbler 
Chiffchaff 
Willow Warbler 
Hedge Sparrow 
Longtailed Tit 
Great Tit 
Tree Sparrow 
Blue Tit 
Wren 
Redbacked Shrike 
Spotted Flycatcher 
Chaffinch 
Greenfinch 
Bullfinch 
Yellow Hammer 
Carrion Crow 
Lesser Spotted Wood¬ 
pecker 
Cuckoo 
Ring Dove 
Turtle Dove 
Tempting the Owls. 
This list, however, by no means repre¬ 
sents all the birds which have been seen 
either in or near the wood. Their 
number is more than sixty, and includes 
the Cuckoo, the Brown Owl, the Moor¬ 
hen, and the Kingfisher. 
To tempt the Owls three tubs were put 
up in trees this spring, but only in one 
was a nest built, and that by a Starling. 
