FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Js5 BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JODRNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. i The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 7904, Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea (£1 is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 5s.)- Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, (a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; (d) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining ; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. TABLE OF CONTENTS.-YOLUME IV. No. l.-SPRING NUMBER, March. 1910. The Duke of Bedford, K.G. Frontispiece. The Story of Bird Protection, Part I. Notes The Annual Meeting. Protection of Lapwing. Clergy and the " Osprey." Blue Birds. The Palace Pageant. The Bird Shop. Notes from Abroad. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - Annual Meeting. Council Meeting. Bird-and-Tree Day Festivals . - - . Books Received ...... The Plume-Trade In the Courts Bird Protection Orders TACE I No. 2.— SUMMER NUMBER, June, 1910. Mr. II. E. Dresser, F.Z.S. International Ornithological Congress - - 13 The Story of Bird Protection, Part II. - - 14 The Plume-Trade .--.-- 16 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - 18 Council Meeting. Obituary. Bird-catching in Close Time. Books Received .---.. 20 Economic Ornithology .... 21 Notes - 22 Bird-catching and liird-selling. The Cry of the Trade. Gold Medal Essay Competition. Bird-and-Tree (Arbor) Day - . . . 23 In the Courts ------- 23 No. 3.-AUTUMN NUMBER, September, 1910. Mr. Lin ley Samhoukne. Mr. Linloy Sambourne and the Birds - - 25 The Story of Bird Protection, Part III. - - 26 The Plume-Trade ------ 27 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - 30 Council Meeting. Bird Watching id 1910 31 Economic Ornithology . . - - - 33 Notes 34 Gulls and Fish. Nesting-Boxes. In Switzerland. Bitd-and-Tree (Arbor) Day - - . - 36 In the Courts ------- 35 No. 4.— WINTER NUMBER, December, 1910. The Protection of Owls The Story of Bird Protection. Part IV. - - 37 The Plume-Trade -..-.. 35 Economic Ornithology - - - - - 41 The Royal Society lor the Protection of Birds - 42 Council IMeeting. Public Schools Essay Com- petition. Notes - - 43 Government Bird-Protection. The Useful Tit. LarKS. The Harvest of the Sea. Bird-Friends. The Out-door .\viary. Birds and Holly Berries. Bird-and-Tree (Arbor) Day - . . . 45 Lantern Enterlainn.ents ----- 46 Books Received -..-.- 47 In the Courts 48 No. 5.— SPRING NUMBER, March, 1911. YouNc; Kestrel : Nest and Eggs. fAUE 49 SI The Story of Bird Protection, Part V. The Plume-Trade ----- Economic Ornithology .... The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Annual Meeting. Council Meeting. Obituary. Public-School Competition. The Protection of Crops. Public-School Essays - - - - • 55 Notes 57 A National Sanctuary. Rnre Birds in Vorkshire. Mr. Lecky among the " Senli- " Ospreys " on the Stage, mentalists." Birds in the Park. The Return of the Migrants. Bird Protection Orders. In the Courts 60 No. 6. -SUMMER NUMBER, June, 1911. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bari. The Story of Bird Protection, Part VI. - - 61 Economic Ornithology - - - . . 64 Bird-and-Tree Day ..... 65 The Royal .Society for the Protection of Birds - 66 Council Meeting. Obituary. Bird-Catching. Notes - 68 The Killing of Rare Birds. The Wild-life of Britain. National Reservations. Nature Study in Schools. Our Country Lanes. Ttie New Forest. Books Received ...... 69 The Plume-Trade 70 Public-School Essays 71 In the Courts ------- 72 No. 7.— AUTUMN NUMBER, September, 1911. " The Story of tub Egret." The Story of Bird Protection, Part VII. - - 73 The Plume-Trade 76 The Royal Society for the Protection of Bird.-. - 79 Council Meeting. The Egret Poster. The Lecture Season. Economic Ornithology - • - - - 8t Bird-and-Tree Da) 82 In the Courts - - 84 Supplement : The Work of the Watchers Committee. No. 8.— WINTER NUMBER, December, 1911. Nests of Tit and Magiie. Tne Story of Bird Protection, Part VIII. ■ - 85 Economic Ornithology - . - - . ^7 The Starling. The Sea-Gull. The Plume-Trade .----- 89 H.M. the Queen and Aigrettes. Bird-and-Tree (Arbor) Day .... 89 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - 90 Council Meetings. Reception. Public-School Competition. Nestiog-Boxes. Obituary. Notes ........ g2 National Collections. Museums and Museums Bird Slaughter in Italy. Catching and Caging. " Recently Taken." Books Received 94 Food-Tables for Birds 96 In the Courts .------ 96 INDEX. Abertirlinshire, Rfoks iii, 21 Agriculiure and Birds, 21, 43^ ^ji 64, 81 Alden, Mr. P., M.P., Plumage Bill, 11, 52 Aldous, Mr. A. E., 43, 56 Alexander, Lieut. Boyd, 20 "Artificial" Ospreys, 29 Americi, South, Egrets of, 51 Arbor Day. See Bird-and-Tree Day Astley, Mr. H. D., 92 Audubon Societies and the Plume-Trade, 16 Australia and the Plume-Trade, 70 Australia, Bird and Arbor Day, 45 ; Bird Protection, 43 Aviary, An outdoor, 43 - Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 62 Bearfied Tit, 57 Becker, Miss Lydia, 26 Bedford, The Duke of. Frontispiece Bird-and-Tree (Arbor Day) Competitions and Festivals, 7. 23, 35, 45, 55, 82, 89 ; in Australia, 45, 89 ; for France, 5, 46 Bird-catching, 20, 22, 67, 74, 93. See In the Courts Bird-dealers, 5, 66, 93 Bird-feeding, 44, 96 "Bird Protection and the Feather Trade," 77 Bird Protection Orders, 12, 59, Si, 90 Bird Protection, Story of, i, 14, 26, 37, 49, 61, 73, 85 Bittern, 12 Black and White, 65 Blinding Song-Birds, 5, 95 "Blue-Bird," 4 Books Received, 11, 20, 47, 60, 94 Bourget, Dr., on Agriculture and Bird Protection, 81 Brighton Downs, Bird-catching on, 20 British Association, 26, 61 Brussels, Millinery Exhibition, 5 Bulbs and Birds, 52 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 37 Buxton, Rt. Hon. Sydney, 74 Caging of Birds, 5, 22, 65, 93 Carlisle, The Earl of, 67 Canada, 5, 65 Cawdor, The Earl, 54 "Chanticler Bow," 16 Clergy and the " osprey," 4 Colam, J., 19 Collections, National, 90 Collins, Colonel Arthur, 91 Collings, Mr. Jesse, 69 " Common Weeds of Farm and Garden," 21 Congress, International Ornithological, 13 Cordeaux, J., 75 Coulson, Colonel Lisle, 67 County Councils Association, 61 Courts, In the, 12, 23, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 Crichton-Brown, Sir J., 34 - Dalhousie, Lord, 15 Dillwyn, Mr., 14 Dilke, Sir Charles, 54, §S Dodsworth, Mr. P. T. L., yb Donations to the R. S. P. B., 66 Dresser, Mr. H. E., Portrait, /a*:^ page 13 Duicher, Mr. W., 16 Eagle, Golden, 31 Eagle, White-tailed, shot, 68 Economic Ornithology, 21, 33, 41, 52, 64, 81 Eggs, Protection of, 3, 61, 73 Egrets of Venezuela^ 39, 51 ; Florida, 28; India, 76. See Plume-Trade and " Story of the Egret " " Feathers and Facts," 50 Feeding the Birds, 96 Ferguson, late Rev. J., 54 Flower v. Watts, 12, 22, 23 Folkestone Warren, 68 France, Bird-and-Tree Day or, 5, 46 Gaiety Theatre and " ospreys," 58 Gamble, Rev. 11. R., 4 Gamekeepers and Bird Protection, 33, 41 Germany, Anti- Plumage League, 89 Graz Zoological Congress, 68 Grassholm, 61 Great Crested Grebe, 71 Gulls, 26, 34, 44, 59, 88 Harvie-Brown, Mr. J. A., 75 Herbert, Hon. Auberon, 3 Herschell, Lord Chancellor, 62 Hertfordshire, Owls in, 41 ; Pole-Trap conviction, 24 Hewitt, Dr. Gordon, 5, 43, 65 Herons at the Poulterers', 94 Holly Berries and Birds, 44 Holland and Plovers' eggs, 64 Hoopoe, Shooting a, 48 Hornsea Mere, 57 Hull Naturalists' Society, 59 Humming-Birds, 70 Inchmickery. See Watchers Supplement Innes, Dr., 17 International Ornithological Congress, 13 Importation of Plumage Prohibition Bill, 40 India and the Plume-Trade, 40, 76 Inspectors, The Society's, 20, 67. Sec Watchers Supplement. Ireland and the Bird Protection Act of 1896, 86 Irish Constabulary and the Bird Protection Act, 86 Italy, Bird Destruction in, 92 James, Mr. Walter, 61 Kestrel and Sparrow-Hawk, 56 Kittiwakes, Destruction of, 2, 26 Lancashire Farmers' Association, 21 Lantern Entertainments, 46 Lapwing, Protection of, 4, 21, 64, 75 ; " The Lapwing's- Nest," 56 Larks, for the Table, 44 Lecky, Mr. W. E., on Feathered Millinery, 58 INDEX. Life ami PVor/^, 44 Lilford, the late Lord, 6I Lubbock, Sir J. (Lord Avebury), 14, 6^ Madras Mail, on Plume-Hunting, 40 Malta, 59 Maxwell, Sir Herbert, Portrait oi,face page 61 j Bird Protection Bills, 62 Menegaux, Dr, A., 77 Middlesex County Council and Bird Protection, 73 87 Migration of Birds, 47, 58, 95 Migratory Birds, Protection of, 17 Millinery, See Plume-Trade Moorhen, Nest, The, 71 " Moulted Plumes," 27, 39, 51 Morris, Rev. F. O., 2, 38 Musgrave, Mr. G. A., 37 Natal, Bird Protection in, 30 "Naturalists Publishing Company," 61 Nature Study in Schools, 35, 69 Nesting Boxes, 34, 43, 91 New South Wales and Bird Protection, 43 New Forest, 69 Newton, Professor, 2, 26, 28, 37, 63 New York Plumage Bill, 16, 88 Nicholson, Mr. W. E. See Watchers Supplement Notes, 4, 22, 34, 43, 57, 68, 92 Obituary Notices : Lord Cawdor, 55 ; Earl of Carlislci 67; Mr. John Colam, 19; Colonel Collins, 90; Colonel Coulson, 67 ; Mrs. D. T. Cowan, 67 ; Rev. J. Ferguson, 55 ; Mr. IL Scherren, 67 ; Earl of Stamford, 19 "Osprey" plumes, Alleged artificial, 29. See Plume- trade, " Stor}- of the Egret," tk.c. " Other Sides of the Bars, The," 65 Owls, Protection of, 41, 53, 64. }sld^^,fiue page 37 Pageant, Crystal Palace, 4 Pam, Mr. Albert, on Plume-hunting, 51 Parks, Birds in the, 58 Passenger Pigeon, 5 Pease, Mr. Alfred, Bird Protection Bill, 61 Pichot, Monsieur P. Amadee, 46 Pigott, Sir Digby, 63 Plume-Trade, li, 16, 27, 37, 39, 40, 50, 70, 76, 80; Colonial Office Committee on, 16, 27, 70 Plumage League, 38 ; in Germany, 89 Poisoned Grain, use of, 24, 60 Pole-Trap, 24, 53 Protection of Crops, Essay Competition, 55 Proud, Mrs. Maynard, 69 Punch, 25, 37 Public-School Essay Competition, 42, 55, 71, 91 " Possession " of Wild Birds, 5, 22, 60, 84 Quails, Trade in, 30 Rare Birds, 36, 57, 68, 72. See Watchers Supplement Rat Plague, 41, 53 Rawnsle^, Rev. Canon, 53, 73 " Recently taken," 5, 22, 23, 93 Richardson's Skua, taking a, 36 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds : Annual Meetings, 6, 53 ; Council Meetings, 6, 18, 30, 42, 54, 66, 79, 90; Early History, 49; Reception at Natural History Museum, 90. See Story of Bird Protection Ruskin, on Feathers and Bristles, 29 Sale or Exchsinge of Plumage Bills, 11, 30, 52 Sambourne, late Mr. Linley, 25 San Remo, Bird I'rotection in, 5 Sanctuaries for Wild Life, 57, 68, 94 Sarasin, Monsieur Paul, 68 Saunders, late Mr. Howard, 26 Scherren, late Mr. Henry, 67 Scottish Bird Protection Orders, 59 Sea-birds Preservation Act, 2, 26 Sea-birds, Protection of, 19 Selborne League, 39 Selous, Mr. Edmund, 92 Sheffield, Prosecutions in, 93, 96 Shetland Isles, 31, 61 Shooting Times, 64 Smith, Mr. H. Hamel, 17, 28 Smuggling Plumage from India, 76 Snow-Bunting, killed, 68, 72 Spain, Bird Protection in, 5 Soly, Monsieur Joseph, 34 Sparrow, A word for the, 33 Stamford, late Earl of, 19, 74 Starling, Protection of the, 87 Switzerland, Birds in, 34 " Story of the Egret," 4, 26, 28, 79, 91. Sandwichmen, io face page 73 Sykes, Mr. Christopher, 2 Tailby, Captain, on Protection of Owls, 53 " Ten Years of Gamekeeping," 33 Thirlmere, 32, 43 Times on the Plumage Bill, 38, 40 Tit, the useful, 43 ; Bearded, 57 Tregarthen, Mr. J. C, 57 Trespass in pursuit, 74 Truth, 93 Tunbridge Wells S.P.C.A., 37 United States, Plumage Bill, 14, 88; Bird-caging in, 32 ; Importation of Plovers' eggs, 6 Yenezuela, Heron-hunting in, 39, 51 Wales, Pole-trap in, 53 Walsingham, Lord, 63 Watchers, The Society's, 31. Sec Watchers Supplement Weed-destroyers, Birds as, 21 Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880, 14; of 1S69, 2; ol 1872, 3 ; of 1S76, 3 ; of 1S80, 14 ; of 1881, 15 ; of 1894, 63 ; of 1896, 86 ; Mr. Alfred Pease's Bill (1S91), 62; Sir Herbert Maxwell's Bill (1893), 62 ; Lord Stamford's Bill (1896), 74 ; Lord Jersey's (1^95), 85; Mr. Bigwood's (1S99), 87; Lord Avebury's (1908), 38, 40, 87 ; Mr. Alden's, u, 52 ; Construction of the Acts of 1880-I, 22, 93 Willow- wren. Return of the, 59 Wynn, Senor Federico, 5 Yorkshire, Rare Birds in, 57 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON. S.W. ^ird-and-^ree (jirhor Day) Competitions. Bircl-aiicl-Tree Day was introduced into Great Britain by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1902. The aim and intention of the scheme is : — 1. To encourage the study of Birds and Trees as an important part of the education of children, in both town and country schools, with a view to stimulating Bird Protection and the preservation and planting of Trees, on the basis of intelligent and practical knowledge. 2. To lead children to observe and think for themselves and to find pleasure and interest in their natural surroundings. 3. To add to the pleasures of country life by establishing a yearly Festival, capable of varied celebration, to accord with the spirit of different localities. The keynote of the scheme is personal observation. Education lies greatly in draAv- ing out the faculties, and in guiding the child to observe in the right way and to think and reason on a sound foundation of fact. This is being more and more acknowledged by Education Authorities, and by such movements as the Boy Scouts ; and the Bird- and-Tree Day Competition is worked on these lines. Individual selection of subject gives im- mediate individual interest in the study of it. Selection of definite subjects prevents the use of vague and loose generalizations that are apt to pass for Nature Study, and necessitates care and accuracy of observation. The stress laid on open-air work guards against the frequent confusion of Nature Study with mere committal to memory of statements and phrases from reading-books or schoolroom instruction. The County Challenge Shield Com- petitions expand this central idea in a way that fosters a healthy rivalry among schools, and also encourages individual Competitors by the award of prizes and medals. The scheme has stood the test of nine years' experience. In every county where the Competition is held it has the approval and support of the County Education Com- mittees and Directors ; in two counties it is entirely under county management. The Council of the R.S.P.B. are willing to under- take the introduction and conduct of the Competition in other counties, where Educa- tion Committees wish to promote Nature Study and will co-operate with the Society. The ultimate object of the Society is the establishment of a NATIONAL BIRD-AND- TREE DAY, and its recognition by the National Education Department. All information can be obtained from the Secretary, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Queen Amie's Gate, S.W. BIRDAND-TREE (ARBOR DAY) COMPETITIONS. The Press. " Education from observation is true education, and largely, thanlcs to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, many schools are now learning far more from birds than from books. The enthusiasm with which boys and girls enter into the spirit of the thing are mystifying to those who have been brought up midor an educational system of decanted knowledge bottled in mental bins from which it soon evaporates. The effect on children of listening to the notes and watching the ways of Birds and growing Trees must be seen to be believed. Zeal for nature study is foiuad to be of the highest educational value. Children thus taught no longer destroy nests and eggs, but take a keen interest in preserving them when they learn the truth about Birds, and when they aro told off to choose for themselves a Bird and a Tree, and to observe these dvu-ing the spring and summer months. When winter comes they write a paper about the Bird and about the Tree. Observation, accurate know- ledge, and first-hand information, not taken from books, are the qualities that secure the prizes given by the good wisdom of the Bird Protection Society." — " Vanoc " (Arnold White) in the Referee, July 23rd, 1911. " Much help has been rendered to the natiu-e- teaching in schools by the Bird-and-Tree scheme of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Into it competition in its most inoffensive form has been introduced. The children are encouraged to contest the possession of a shield in teams of nine. Each competitor must select a Bird and a Tree for study and observation. They are encovtraged to keep a diary of their observations, and at the end of the time they embody the results in essays. . . The great feature is that the systematic study of a Tree or a Bird provides endless subjects for composition, and composition, mark you, wliich is not vague, rambling, or laboured, but, on the contrary, to the point in every respect." — Country Life, July 8th, 1911. There is no question as to the larger moral effect of this work. It is education in the true sense ; not the mere memorizing of facts, but the training of the child's mind and the development of its faculties, its powers of observation, of judg- ment, and of sympathetic interest." — Eastern Daily Press, December 2nd, 1910 " The scheme is admirable, and capable of doing an infinite amount of good." — The Editor op Education. From Education Authorities. " Tlie Education Committee have the highest opinion of the value and importance of observa- tional lessons and studies in Elementary Schools such as this competition seeks to promote, and are very anxioas that wherever the circumstances of the school will permit, teachers will encourage their scholars to prepare and enter for the competition. The Committee desire me very warmly to commend the matter to you, and they hope to learn that your school has been entered." — The Director op Education for Bedfordshire to Head Teacliers of Beds. Schools, April, 1910. ' ' Some people think that only the three R's should be taught in schools ; but great as know- ledge is, the power of observation is an even more important thing to acquire, and nothing develops this better than the watching of Birds and Trees." — The Education Secretary for Bucks, at Stony Stratford Bird-and-Tree Festival, 1907. ' ' Not only is the Society doing an extremely useful work in endeavouring to prevent the exter- mination of rare birds, and to make people imder- stand the value and habits of birds, but this particular effort is one wliich should be encouraged by all interested in the real education of children, in the development of their faculties and their training for the occupations of after-life. It is part of a movement for making school -teaching less bookish than in the past, for dealing with real things, and tlirowing the children upon their own powers of observation and resource. The competi- tion is good because in it the children are writing of things with which they are acquainted and not simply abstract things." — The Education Secre- tary for Somerset at the Yatton Festival, 1907. "No subject is more valuable to the cliildren than this study, which rouses their interest eind their powers of observation. I hear a great deal as to the effect which has been jiroduced by the competition in encouraging kindness to animals." — The Director of Education for Warwickshire. BIRD-AND-TREE (ARBOR DAY) COMPETITIONS. "I regard the Bird-and-Tree Competition as one of the greatest educational efforts in Hampsliire to stimulate the child's ideas and powers." — The Director op Education for Hampshire, at Havant Festival. ' ' Having tested the work done by the children in their essays, I am convinced that no other subject calls forth more strongly the love of the child or its powers of observation. I had really not thought children could write so well. Books are but second- hand knowledge ; this is largely first-hand observa- tion, because nothing is so important in this work as that the children should see a thing for themselves and see it well. And it is the observation of the living thing and its natural movements. I should like to emphasize strongly that the living thing in its proper surroundings should be the object of Nature Study— not the dead, dried, or stuffed specimen. Speaking therefore as a friend of the children, I put in a plea for Bird-and-Tree work as a subject that ought to be taken up, not only in rural schools, but in all schools, and one which should be regarded earnestly and seriously." — The Director of Education for Hampshire, at High- wood (Hants), Jime 11th, 1910. *' The Bird-and-Tree scheme has been very widely adopted in this comity, over one hundred schools participating. The scheme has been the means of stimulating interest in Nature Study generally, and in Bird-and-Tree life in particular. This effect has been distinctly beneficial, and has helped rather than retarded the teaching of the ordinary subjects. Both teachers and children liave taken a great in- terest in the work." — The Secretary for Education for Norfolk, letter to R.S.P.B., October 19th, 1911. " Bird and Arbor Day has begun a splendid work ; and from looking over the essays of two counties, and talking with the masters in different counties, I can testify how delightful that addition to their school work has been, and how recreative and healthful it is at the same time. I would press very strongly upon the Council that they should go forward boldly and make friends of all the county councils in the land, urging them to let the Society do that particular kind of work which, done in this recreative way, and outside the ordinary curriculimi of school, appeals more truly to the hearts, sympathies and interests of yomig children." — Canon Rawnsley, at the Society's Annual Meeting, 1905. "Every encouragement should be given to the institution of school field-clubs, Bird-and-Tree teams, scouting parties, naturalist societies, and other developments of a like nature, among the pupils." — Memorandum on Nature Study and the Teaching of Science in Scottish Schools, Scotch Education Department, 1908. From Head Teachers. ' ' The Competition has been of the greatest possiljle help to our school work ' generally. Every single subject seems to have benefited, and I regard the scheme as most helpful and beneficial to both teachers and taught." — (Hants.) ' ' The children are more in love with the work than ever, and I hope there will be increased entries from Somerset this year." — (Somerset.) " I find the stvidy invaluable in kindling a zeal for Nature Study. The girls never afterwards lose the interest thus awakened. For that, if for nothing else, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Society." — (Hants.) ' ' I find the study and the Festival in connection with your Society of inestimable benefit." — (Bucks.) ' ' The scheme has afforded the school generally, and the team and myself in particular, the keenest pleasm-e. I am certain that such a scheme is of the highest educational value, and must have a far-reaching effect for good." — (Warwickshire.) ' ' There is a rough boy here, who before would only think of throwing a stone at every bird he saw, but who now takes an interest in birds and even carried crumbs to feed his special bird to keep it from being frightened while he was watching it." — (Warwickshire.) " The very name " Bird-and-Tree Day " signifies to oiir children all that is enjoyable and pleasant." — (Berks.) Since the competition started the number of birds has greatly increased, especially the rarer species. The children no longer destroy nests and eggs, but take a keen interest in preserving them, and the people know that they will report cases of birds or eggs wrongfully taken." — (Somerset.) ' ' My opinion is that any little trouble there may be in connection with Bird-and-Tree Day is repaid over and over again by the increased intelligence of the children, which is shown in every branch of school work ; not to mention the deligh t of the children when anything in natmre comes under their notice for the first time. I find that Bird-and- Tree work makes the children more observant, more eager to find out the reason for things, and brighter all round." — (Beds.) BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. Vol. IV. No. I HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. K.G.. Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Chairman of the Annual Meeting. 1910. By special permission. BIRD NOTES Pino NEWS. IssucD C^uarttrlw bji tljc iloiial ^ocictj for t)jz protection of ^irtis. Vol. IV.— No. 1.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [MARCH 31, 1910. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION. PART I. IRD Protection in Britain ad- : vanced for some time along two distinct lines ; the first, a move- ment for the safe-guarding of native birds by legal measures, and the second, a voluntary movement seeking to check the destruction for millinery purposes of birds of all countries. Legal protection is by a good many cen- turies the older of the two, not only because it has to do with the law of property, one of the oldest and strongest of man-made laws, but also because the " keeper's-gibbet " style of headgear is itself a modem invention. But legal protection for British birds is also of very recent growth except as regards a few favoured species. It is indeed reported of King John that he enacted a law prohibit- ing the taking of all wild birds throughout his kingdom, but if any such Magna Charta for birdland was ever devised, it must have had an exceedingly short duration, and nothing like it for beauty and simplicity has since appeared on the Statute Book. The early Acts were all Game Acts, dictated solely by considerations for the profit or pleasure of man. The birds under their care were chiefly Pheasants and Partridges, Falcons (for the benefit of falconry), and Swans (the royal bird). Henry the Seventh decreed a year's imprisonment and a fine of 4d. for the man who should take the eggs of Falcon or Swan, even on his o\mi land. Henry the Eighth made it a felony, with the penalty of death, to take the eggs or young of the Falcon from another person's land, and forbade the sale of Pheasants and Partridges to anyone not of the royal house- hold. The same reign saw also the first legislation for the protection of wild fowl — the first general Bird Protection law, and practically the last until 1869. This was an Act passed in 1534 fixing a close time from May 31st to August 31st, during which wild fowl might be taken only by certain methods and by certain persons, under the penalty of a year's imprisonment and a fine of 4d. A heavier punishment was meted out to egg- hfters, amounting to as much as 8d. for the egg of a Shoveller Duck, Heron, or Bittern, and 20d. for that of a Bustard or Crane. The heavy penalty and the value attached to eggs are notable as compared with modern legislation, under which eggs were wholly unprotected until the Act of 1894 was passed ; while even the rarest species is still entirely dependent on County Council Orders. In other countries nests and eggs more commonly share in the protection given to the birds themselves. In Queen Anne's reign a close or moulting-time from July 1 to Septem- ber 1, was ordained for Wild Duck and other water-fowl in all the broads, fens, and other places to which they resorted ; and the period was extended a month at either end in 1737. When, however, the Game Laws of 1831 were passed, "game" was restricted in meaning to a few species ; the Wild Duck, Herons, and other birds previously included in the term came no longer under the aegis of the law, and wild birds in general were BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. therefore left in a worse position than before. They were nobody's property; to be " wild " meant to be the victim of ev^ery blundering shot, of every grumbling farmer, of every brutal lout and every cruel school-boy. The law against cruelty, even for domestic animals, had only just crept, abused and jeered at, into existence. This state of things lasted until 1869. Two or three years earlier, attention had been drawn to the enormous slaughter of Gulls and other sea-fowl, especially on the east coast, in the height of the breeding season. Frequent excursions were run throughout the summer from Lancashire's large towns, and from London and other centres, to Flamborough Head and the Yorkshire coast generally, and to the Isle of Wight and southern resorts, for the purpose of affording holiday-makers the joy of des- troying harmless Sea-mews, Guillemots, and other birds. In addition to the wanton barbarities of the Cockney sportsman (a phrase which appears to have been invented by Professor Newton), a flourishing trade was done to the order of plume-dealers, who seized the opportunity to obtain goods in the cheapest market ; and women's hats begun to bristle with the wings of Kittiwakes and other birds, killed by the thousand while sitting on their nests or tending their young. It was an early edition of the " Osprey" story, and of the story that is still echoing from the Pacific Islands and other breeding grounds of the " Dominoe " Terns and their white-winged kindred. Among the prime movers in arresting this destruction were Professor Newton and the Rev. F. 0. Morris ; the question was taken up by the British Asso- ciation at their meeting in Norwich in 1868, and an East Riding Association was formed with the object of obtaining an Act for the protection of native sea-birds. Mr. Christopher Sykes, Member of Parliament for that Division, was one of the Committee, and, thanks in great measure to his energy, the Bill was passed by the House of Commons, the Duke of Northumberland taking charge of it in the Upper House. The measure did not become law without raising the outcry that the poor man was being deprived of his bread. Sporting trip- pers who sought amusement in winging the birds, the dealers' men who went out with their nets, had to hire local boatmen ; and the boatmen thought they saw their trade gone. This Act gave a close time, from April 1st to August 1st, to thirty-three species of sea- birds, and fixed a penalty for killing, wound- ing, or being in possession, at £1 for each bird. The species named were all (with the exception of the Black-backed Gull) trans- ferred to the Schedule of the Act of 1880. The unprotected condition of birds, the decrease of their numbers, and the cruelties to which they were exposed having once been brought into view, it was not likely that bird-lovers would rest satisfied with this limited measure of protection for sea-birds only. Mr. Morris and others had already been agitating for wider treatment of the whole matter, pointing out the invaluable services of the small bird to agriculture, and urging a heavy tax on guns, the prohibition of iron traps, a licence for bird-dealers and small cages, and other measures. Professor Newton in his address at the British Asso- ciation, had predicted that " sooner or later a close time must be estabhshed in this country for all wild birds . . . the Hawk and Sea-gull equally with the Pheasant and Grouse." Sunday protection was also pleaded for, Sunday being then, as now, the great day for bird-catchers, and also for BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. shooting parties, which sallied forth from towns and villages to pot at any small birds they came across. In 1870 Mr. Morris started an Association for the Protection of British Birds, directed mainly against bird catching and dealing. In 1872 an Act was passed giving a close time from March 14th to August 1st, to some seventy-nine land birds. The actual number, as in the case of sea-birds, cannot be precisely stated, as inexactitude has marked the schedules of every Act, one bird being entered under two or three names, or one name covering an uncertain number of species. The Act of 1872, for instance, protected the "Redpoll," and it was a matter for dispute whether or not this term included the Linnet ; while, on the other hand, some birds appear in the schedules of the Acts of 1869 and 1880, under three or even four names. Less than half of the birds scheduled in 1872 are named in the existing Acts. Redpoll, Pipit, Wagtail, Crossbill, Nuthatch, Bearded Tit, Wood-wren, Wryneck, Haw- finch, Flycatcher, and Martin are no longer favoured above their fellows. The penalty for killing birds named in the 1872 Act, was indeed no more than that for all birds under that of 1880 — reprimand for a first offence and a 5s. fine for subsequent offences ; but the broadly-interpreted clause of the existing Act, giving a free hand to owners and occupiers and their servants, has made it essential that County Councils should add to the schedule any bird for which protection is really desired. The easy penalties of the Act of 1872 were soon found to make it almost useless, and the next j^ear Mr. Auberon Herbert persuaded the House of Commons to appoint a Special Committee to enquire into the advisability of extending its provisions. The amount of interesting evidence given by naturalists, agriculturists and others fills a stout Blue Book ; but three more years passed without further legislation. Lord de la Warr, indeed, made strenuous efforts to obtain some protection for nests and eggs ; but he was uasuccessful. In 1876 another piece of patchwork was added to the Acts of 1869 and 1872, aimed this time at the better preservation of wild fowl. It singled out thirty-five birds named in the 1872 Act, added the Wild Goose, and made the penalty for killing these the same as the penalty for killing the sea-birds named in the 1869 Act. It also set up a third variety of close time, from February 15th to July 10th ; so that, with the six separate close times of the Game Acts, legislation on this point was sufficiently complex. The preamble to the Act of 1876 curiously resembles that to the Act of 1534. The old Tudor law set forth that wild fowl were becoming reduced in numbers, and con- sequently the price was going up. "Before this time there had been witliin this realm great quantities of •nild fowl, as ducks, mallards, widgeons, teals, wild geese, and divers other kinds of wild fowl, with which formerly the King's houses and the houses of the noblemen and prelates of the realm were furnished ... at con- venient prices, and all markets sufficiently furnished with wild fowl." It was especially laid down that the Act did not extend to birds and eggs " not comestible nor used to be eaten." The Victorian law recounted that " The wild fowl of the United Kingdom forming a staple article of food and commerce, have of late years greatly decreased in numbers by reason of their being inconsiderately slaughtered during the time that they have eggs and young," and that^ owing to their marketable value. they were insufficiently protected. It did not, however, extend any protection to eggs. This frankly commercial piece of Bird Protection was the last on the Statute Book, until the Act of 1880 swept away all previous legislative attempts. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. ./cr ucT ucT Notes, usr ucr usr THE ANNUAL MEETING. Two practical suggestions to Bird Pro- tectors were made at the Annual Meeting of the R.S.P.B. The Duke of Bedford advised the adoption of the hint given by the Home Office to the Dorset County Council some little time ago, to the effect that the numbers of the Lapwing could bo kept up by having the bird protected all the year round. Even sportsmen could hardly object to this, as the Green Plover is not a good table bird ; and were it placed on the fully protected list in all counties, with protection also for the second lajung of eggs, the farmers would benefit and England be spared the reproach of British Lapwings in the shops of the United States, Let it be remembered, however, that while the Home Secretary recommends pro- tection for the birds on the ground that egg-taking is a legitimate industry, it is not long since Lincolnshire magistrates refused a conviction for the use of the " landwatch " in trapping Lapwings, on the ground that the trapping of the birds constitutes a flourishing trade. CLERGY AND THE " OSPREY." The second suggestion at the Meeting was that given by the Rev. H. R. Gamble, the well-known rector of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, that the clergy generally should be asked to do what he has done — display the wall-sheet of " The Story of the Egret" in their church porches. Women's hats are not an easy subject for pulpit reference ; but any sympathetic clergyman or minister (and who among them are not sympathetic in this cause ?) might consent to give space to the placard alongside the Lists of Voters and other porch literature, and leave it to preach its silent sermon. The suggestion is an admirable one, and it is to be hoped that members of the Society will urge the request as widely as possible. BLUE BIRDS. Birds seem curiously to the fore in public entertainments just now. Apart from the conspicuous example across the Channel, two cases at home have aroused the attention of bird-lovers. The introduction of live birds, coloured blue, for the dramatic requirements of " The Blue Bird," suggested dyeing processes hardly agreeable, and possibly fatal, to the pigeons employed. It appears, however, that R.S.P.C.A. officers have examined the birds and found them none the worse for the treatment. Sixty birds are used in relays of thirty, " so that no bird is at the theatre for more than a week at a time, and spends every alternate Aveek in the country." Their strange appearance must flutter the country dove-cotes. THE PALACE PAGEANT. The second matter touches Wild Bird Protection more closely. A statement was widely circulated by the newspapers that some thirty thousand sparrows were to be used in connection with the Empire Pageant at the Crystal Palace ; they were to be caught in relays, for the purpose of being dramatically freed in some scene or other. As the catching of multitudinous wild birds BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. during the height of the breeding season — even if the captivity were to be only temporary and a prelude to release in the Palace grounds, and even if the catching were so contrived that it involved none of the terror and death which smites so many of the birdcatchers' victims, and no nestlings a-dying ; granted all these conditions, it was certainly not desirable that the law should be strained merely to create a childish spectacle copied from an Italian festa. It is therefore satisfactory to have the following assurance from Mr. Lascelles, the master of the Pageant, addressed to the R.S.P.B. :— " I am most glad to liave tho opportunity of contradicting the statement that we purpose catcliing and keeping in captivity large cjuantities of birds for the purpose of releasing them during the Pageant." THE BIRD SHOP. Birdcatchers and dealers are becoming seriously alarmed by the activities of Inspectors of the R.S.P.B. and the R.S.P.C.A., and by the literal interpretation of the law. A London magistrate recently lield that the possession of newly taken wild birds, the taking or possession of which is illegal in London, is not made legal by the birds having been caught in an unprotected district. Tlic relaxation granted by the Act of 1881 at the instance of game-dealers, states that this excuse ma)' be valid in the case of bu-ds recently " killed " ; it pointedly omits mention of birds taken alive. The trade propose to fight this decision. Caged Birds sounds a call to arms for the purpose of resisting the R.S.P.B., and issues this touching placard : — • Danger ! They are trying to stop you keeping I-innets, Larks, and other pet birds. NOTES FROM ABROAD. Among interesting items relative to the work of Bird Protection in other countries is the news of an effort in Spain to make the blinding of song-birds illegal ; everyone will wish Senor Federico Wjnin success in such a cause. In San Remo a similar effort is being made by the Animal Protection Society, of which Colonel Momber is Hon. Secretary, to suppress the blinding of call- birds. The custom in this case is illegal, but as offenders can never be caught in the act, the Municipio is being asked to jirohibit the sale, carrying or exposing of blinded birds. — It is proposed to introduce " Bird and Tree Day " into France, more or less on the lines now fa- miliarised in England. An interesting article on Natural History versus History in the Primary Schools appears in Le Chenil (February 17th, 1910), describing the R.S.P.B. methods, and pointing out that nature-study fixes the children's attention on things with which t\\ey are in daily contact and which are not beyond their comprehension, develops the faculty of observation, and gives healthy food to curiosity. — At Brussels a highly successful exhibition of birdless millinery was held, February 19th-23rd, under the auspices of La Ligue contre le port des Plumes. The leading milliners were represented. — In New York awards are being offered for information of a nesting pair or colony of Passenger Pigeons in the continent of North America. Within living memory these birds existed in millions. — Dr. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist (lately of Manchester University), gave interesting evidence before the Canadian Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization in December last, with reference to the value of insectivorous birds. Professor Hewitt's evidence has been published by the Canadian Government. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. ANNUAL MEETING. The Annual Meeting of the Society was held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, S.W., on March 9th, 1910, the Duke of Bedford in the chair. The other speakers included Mr. Montagu Sharpe (Chairman of Council), Su^ Arthur Bignold, Bart,, Sir Wilham Portal, Bart., the Rev. H. R. Gamble, Mr. LawTcnce Hardy, M.P., Mr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Mr. J. R. B. Masefield, Mr. Ogilvie Grant, Colonel Coulson, and Mr. F. C. Borrett. A full report of the proceedings is contained in the Annual Report of the Society, and can be had from the Society's office, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. COUNCIL MEETING. A Meeting of the Council was held at the Middlesex Guildhall, on January 28th, 1910, when there were jDresent : Mr. Montagu Sharpe, in the chair, Miss Clifton, Mr. H. E. Dresser, Dr. Drewitt, Miss Hall, Hon. Mrs. Henniker, Mr. W. H. Hudson, Mr. Hastings Lees, Mrs. F. E. Lemon, Mr. Ogilvie Grant, Captain Tailby, Mr. F. E. Lemon (Hon. Secretary), and Miss Gardiner (Secretary). The Hon. Secretary's Report stated that since December 17th, 1909, lectures illustrated by the Society's slides had been given as follows: December 21st, Mrs. Burdon (Royston) ; January 5th, Miss Farquhar (Wickham) (Bird and Tree Day) ; January 10th and 15th, Miss Rintoul (Edinburgh and Colinsburgh) ; January 22nd, Miss Pirn (Dublin). A hst of the Bird and Tree Festi- vals which had been held was presented, and it was reported that a circular letter had been sent to the schools informing them of the change of date for the competitions, and suggesting methods for keeping alive interest in the study during the short enforced interim. The issue of Bird Protection Orders in four Counties was recorded. The Finance and General Purposes Committee presented the Statement of Accounts for 1909, as signed by the Auditors, and reported the investment of £150 in Local Loans Stock. Annabella Lady Boughey and Miss Isabel Bonus were elected Fellows of the Society, and the following new Members were elected : — Mrs. Arnold Burro wes (Buckingham) ; Rev. R. H.Consterdine (Lindow, Wilmslow) ; R. Dendy (Haileybury) ; Mrs, Grundy (Royston) ; Mrs. Machin (Redhill) ; Mrs. Parker (Ettington) ; Miss L. L. A. Taylor (Coleshill, Bucks) ; Mr. P. L. C. Webster (Hailej^bury). Life 31 embers : — Mrs.Crowder, Miss H. M. Littlejohn, Allan Herbert Percy Noble (London, W.). General Business. — The work of the In- spector with respect to the checking of bird-catching during the coming season was discussed, and attention was drawn to the proposal of the trade to appeal against the Old Street magistrate's verdict in a recent conviction for possession of Protected Wild Birds. A letter from the Secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was read, dealing with the co- operation of the two Societies in the case of Bird Protection legislation, and assent was given to the propositions made. Some discus- sion took place respecting the legal Protection of Wild Birds off the British coast under the Act of 1896, and suggestions were made for the amendment of the law on this point. Mr. H. E. Dresser undertook to represent the Society at the International Ornitho- logical Congress to be held in Berlin, May 30th to June 4th, 1910. Meetings of the Finance and General Purposes, Publication, and Watchers Com- mittees were held at 23, Queen Anne's Gate, on February 18th. BJRD NOTES AND NEWS. UcT Bird and Tree (Arbor) Day. UcT Bird and Tree Festivals liave been the order of the day in many schools and villages during the past three months, and show a strong tendency to increase in number and importance, while more study is given to the distinctive character of the proceedings. In time, no doubt, many schools M'ill evolve their own special and particular form of demonstration, and neighbouring squires and residents will, it is hoped, help, as many do now, to make the festival a memorable occasion for all con- cerned. It is impossible to do more than refer to a few of the celebrations. Berkshire. — The first place must be given to Bucldand School, winners of the Inter-County Shield, who had a great day on February 15th. The feature of the occasion was a cinematograph lecture by Mr. Richard Kearton ; but prior to this a number of trees and shrubs \\ere planted by members of the team and gardening class. The evening meeting was presided over by Mr. A. T. West, and the Shield and prizes were presented by Lady FitzGerald. In addition to the books and medals of the Society, a special prize M'as given by Mr. West for the best essay (won by Arthur Hughes), and a consolation prize was given by Sir WiUiam Anson. The County Education Authority was represented by Mr. O. Willson, Assistant Secretary for Higher Education, who testified to the Committee's appreciation of the work done at Buckland by Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher (the Head Master and jMistress of the School), especially as the greater part of the Bird and Tree \\ ork was carried on out of school. The local Secretary's report alluded to the great loss sustained in the death of the Vicar, the Rev. W. Bulmer, who was keenly inter- ested in this Avork. Game-keepers and others in the neighbourhood were thanked for helping the team, while hearty acknowledgment was also made of the support given to the celebra- tion by Sir Maurice FitzGerald (the Ivnight of Kerry) and Lad}^ FitzGerald, and others. Bedfordshire. — Potton Council School held its Festival on February 11th. In the afternoon some hundred children of the upper forms went in procession to the top of Horselow Street, where a sycamore tree was planted amid cheers. A crowded meeting A\as then held in the schoolroom, which could not hold all who wished to be present. Dr. Dixon presided, and presented the Shield and prizes, heartily congratulating the Master (Mr. Bartle), teachers, and team. Mr. W. Bond Smith said he thought such a competition was good for all, encouraging as it did the excellent habit of observation. After hearing the essa3^s read he was con- vinced that the awards were given not only for encouragement but for really excellent work. He hoped to see the practice of robbing nests, so prevalent years ago, rapidly die out. Mr. Braybrooks, C.C, also spoke, and a number of songs and recita- tions were well given by the scholars, and part-songs by the School Prize Choir. Mr. J. W. Felts acted as Hon. Secretary-, and the Shield is on view at his office. Wohurn School has special help and stimulus in the proximity of Wobum Park, to which members of the team have free access, and in the interest and assistance so kindly given by the Duchess of Bedford. To celebrate the winning of the Second Prize, the Duchess entertained all the boys to a cinematograph exhibition of Bird Life, at the Town Hall, on February 4th. The photographs, taken by Mr. Kearton and Mr. Pike, were shown by Mr. W. Machin, by means of the apparatus recently acquired by the Bedfordshire Band of Hope Union. Mr. Rowland Hill presided, and the Shield and books were presented by the Duchess of Bedford, who spoke of her oaah great interest in the work, and paid a high tribute to the work of the schoolmaster, Mr. Studman. A special prize of a field-glass was given by Her Grace, and a silver watch by Major Haines. BIRD NOTES AND NJEWS. Temps ford School had a hearty and hajipy festivity on February 1st, beginning with a tea and games, and ending with a dance. Between these gaieties came an entertain- ment of songs and readings, the reading of essays, and the presentation of prizes by the Rector, in the unavoidable absence of Lady Owen Mackenzie. A particularly appropriate and attractive programme was arranged for the Eggingfou Festival on March 7th, and was caj)itally performed by the children before a crowded audience. In addition to the play "The Skylark's Release," the songs and recitations all had reference to Birds and Trees. Major Haines, who presided, congratulated the school on winning a cer- tificate on its first attempt, and on the interest taken in the study by the mistress. Miss F. A. Woods. Birds might do a certain amount of damage to plants and fruit for a short time, but for nine months in the year they lived on insects and weed-seeds. At Keysoe, on February 25th, the scholars gave an entertainment, and the prizes were presented by Mr. W. Hartop, Manager. A tree was planted by the elder boys. At Mogerhanger, on December 17th, the elder scholars gave a Cantata, " Father Time and his Children," the group of seasons and months forming a pretty scene ; and the younger children evidently enjoyed "Adapted Nursery Rhymes." Mrs. Thornton distri- buted books and medals, and the report was read by the mistress, Miss Cartwright. Buckinghamshire. — Stony Stratford C.E. School, which has won the Shield three times, had on this occassion a three days' festivity, the entertainment given at the prize presen- tation on December 21st, being repeated the following evening ; while on the 23rd, the tree-planting ceremony took place. The children went through a long and elaborate programme of songs, costume sketches, and dialogues, most successfully, and the room was crowded on both occasions. The Vicar, Rev. H. Last, presided, and complimented the master and mistress, Mr. Baldock and Miss Fryer, and the staff, on the school's achievement. The tree-planting took place in Vicarage Walk, whither the children went in procession with flags flying ; and a horse- chestnut tree, given by Mr. W. Paterson, of Wakefield Estate Office, was planted by the top boy and essayist, C. W. Green, under the superintendence of Mr. F. W. Woollard, J. P. In addition to the nine members of the team to whom books were presented by the Society, fourteen other scholars who had studied birds and trees during the year, received book awards. At Cuddington a capital programme was gone through by the children, including the play " The Skylark's Release." A fine young oak-tree, given by Mrs. Napier Higgins, was planted, the leading planters being the youngest girl and the oldest boy. Elleshorongh School, which would have re- ceived the second prize had the competition been sufficiently large, was awarded a special prize of £1 by the County Council in recog- nition of its good work. The rector. Rev. R. C. Clarke, presided over a gathering in the Parish Hall, on February 3rd, and the awards were presented by Mrs. Clarke. Dr. L. H. West gave a congratulatory and encouraging address, and an excellent selec- tion of Bird and Tree songs and recitations, given under the direction of the master, Mr. A. H. Arnold, showed that the children's voices were as well trained as their obser- vation. A number of briar stocks were planted in the school garden. Princes Rishorougli, keeping Festival on December 20th, had the benefit of a charming address on "Observation, Thought, and Kind- ness," from Mrs. Boutwood, of Bledlow, who also distributed the Bird and Tree Prizes, to which she kindly made several additions. The master, Mr. Dyer, read the two best essays, and Bird and Tree songs were sung. The Rector presided. A tree was afterwards planted in one of Lord Rothschild's fields. Coleshill had its Festival on December 21st, but the hard frost compelled postponement of the tree planting. The Rev. C. G. Walker presided over the gathering, Mrs. Dendy presented the prizes, together with other BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. school awards, and the cliildrcn gave a cantata and songs in excellent style. Cumberland. — Though the celebration took place in tlie mid=^t of the Election turmoil, a number of Bird and Tree friends assembled to do honour to Kirkosicald School, on January 14th. Before the indoor proceedings, holly and ivy, apple and pear trees were planted in the school grounds by Mrs. F. W. Chance and Miss Chance, INIrs. Featherstonehaugh, and Mr. Heywood Thompson (late High Slieriff). The Rev. R. Duncan presided over the meeting. The Shield and prizes were presented by Mrs. Chance, who gave a sympathetic and stimu- lating address, observing that she never could understand how anyone could be so cruel as to rob a bird's nest or keep a wild bird in captivity. Mr. C. Courtenay Hodgson, Secretary for Education for the County, also spoke, and a vote of thanks ^vas accorded the Master, Mr. Brad\\ell. At St. John's Girls' School, Keswick, the tree-planting was performed byMrs.Headlam, who, Avith the help of some of the girls, planted a beech-tree in Fitz Park. At the subsequent meeting the Rev. L. M. Headlam, Vicar, presided and read the Report. The prizes were given by ^Ii's. IVIitchell-Dawson, and addresses from Mr. F. E. Marshall and Mr. John Postlethwaite, F.G.S., afforded practical advice to the team as well as congratulations to Miss Hayes. Norfolk. — The second annual distribution of awards, in connection with the Bird and Tree scheme in Norfolk, took place at the Assembly Rooms, Norwich, on December 20th, and at St. James's Hall, King's Lynn, on December 21st. On each occasion Mr. Kearton gave his cinematograph lecture, "The Fairyland of Nature." Mr. F. H. Millington, chairman of the Education Committee, presided over the Norwich gathering, and the Shield (won by Sproicston Council School), prizes, and medals were presented by Mrs. E. H. Evans-Lombe. At King's Lynn the chairman was Sir William ffolkes, chairman of the County Council, and the presentation ceremony was undertaken by Lady ffolkes. The principal speaker Mas Mr. H. Rider Haggard, who remarked that in man's early days, when tigers, bears, and weird reptiles were met with, observation of Nature must have been an active, exciting and serious art. Now we lived in cities and forgot all about Nature, so much so that he had heard a lady express surprise on being told that wheat was the raw material of flour. This flocking to the cities was a sad and dangerous thing. During the Boer war many bad accidents happened to our troops, simply because our men were town-bred and could not match the Boer on his veldt. If we were to continue to build up our nation we must teach townspeople something of the charm of Nature, and we must also teach those who lived in the country and who were often obUvious of those charms. Such schemes as the Bird and Tree competition gave to children the uncommon gift of observation, and taught them to admire, to wonder at, and to love that beautiful creation which was at once the handiwork and the visible garment of God. At King's Lynn the principal speaker was the Rev. E. T. Daubeny. Hampshire. — December 18th was Bird and Tree Day at the Sholing Girls' Council School. Birch, Rowan and Sycamore trees were planted in the playground by essayists who had written on those trees. A tea was given to sixty of the girls, to which their mothers and also the local committee were invited ; and in the evening Mr. Dowty, Chairman of the Committee, presided over a crowded gathering in the large school hall. Mr P. E. Hayward formally handed over the Shield to the keeping of the head mis- tress, Mrs. Kellaway, and the prizes and medals to the team. The second part of the programme consisted of an effective per- formance of JVIrs. Suckling's play, " The New Law Courts," and of morris dances. The Sandown Boys' School, winners of the Third Prize, and the Sandown Girls, win- ners of a Certificate, had a joint celebration on March 18th. A capital programme of songs and readings was followed by the presentation of prizes and medals by the Rev. W. T. Storrs, B.D., who presided, and 10 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. useful and encouraging addresses were given by the chairman and the Rev. R. J. Lubbock, A.K.C., tlie festivity concluding with the planting of a tree and shrubs. Mr. A. G. Pricket t, head master, and Miss Watson, head mistress, were thanked for their un- faiUng interest in the work. At Barton Stacey the Festival was asso- ciated with the School breaking-up day on December 22nd. The report and best essays were read by the Vicar, Rev. A. C. FrankHn, who also gave an interesting address ; and after songs and recitations, two Chestnut trees were planted in the playground, one by the Vicar, Avho was the kind donor of both, the other by Miss Hodgson, of Gavelacre. Successful festivals have been held also at Bramshaw, Awbridge, Ridge, Romsey, and others have yet to be carried out. Somersetshire. — The formal presentation of the Shield to the Frome Boys' School is postponed until later in the year. Yatton held its Annual Festival on January 1 5th , when the Second Prize awards and medals were presented by Lady Cardigan, and the permanent commemoration Shield by Mr. C. H. Bothamley, County Education Secretary ; and Mountain-ash trees were planted in the churchyard. The Vicar, Rev. R. Hayes- Robinson, presided. The essays were read, and a Somerset folk-song formed a pleasing item of the proceedings. Lady Cardigan expressed her pleasure in'^attending such an interesting function and her unqualified approval of this means of inculcating the observation which made the profit and pleasure in life of the country. Mr. Bothamley observed that the competitions were extremely useful in leading young people to take an interest in bird-life, and they served another purpose in so training the mind that they could rely on their own judgment and knowledge in emergencies. A most promising member of the team being seriously ill, Mr. Bothamley kindly took the sick lad his medal and book. At Long Asliton the festivities extended over three days. The presentation took place at Ashton Court, where Lady Smythe formally handed over to Mr. Gunston the Bronze Inter-County Medal and the per- manent memorial Shield attesting the past victories of the Bird and Tree team. The girls of the cookery class made the cakes for the festival tea; the boys of the gardening class planted the trees. Some very fine photo- graphs of the teams, the school, garden, and bee-garden, were taken by Mrs. Irby and copies kindly presented to the School and to the R.S.P.B. Exford had, as usual, a most successful entertainment, given by the teachers and scholars, under the direction of Mr, Brambley, head master. The schoolroom was packed, and the songs, dialogues, and sketches were successfully performed. The Rev. W. New presided and read the report, and the certificate and prizes were dis- tributed by Mrs. New. Extra books were given by Mr. New and Mr. Greig, and Mr. and Mrs. New gave the team tea. A pet Jackdaw belonging to the School was a conspicuous feature in the proceedings at Catcott, where the Festival was held on December 23rd. He accompanied the chil- dren to the field behind the school where the trees, given by Mr. Henniker, were planted, and superintended the work from a convenient apple-tree, occasionally alighting on one of the children to have a closer view. The prizes were presented by Mr. Henniker, and carols sung. At Clutton a larch tree and some flowering shrubs were planted and the awards dis- tributed on December 23rd. Warwickshire. — Here too the festival of the Shield School, Middleton, has been post- poned. Henley -in- Arden, winners of the Second Prize, commemorated the event on St, Valen- tine's Day, the Rev. G. A. WiUis, chairman of Managers, presiding, and congratulating Mr. Cooper and liis staff and the team, upon the success won, and the practical benefits resulting from the study. He hoped Bird and Tree Day would become an annual fes- tival. Several of the essays were read and songs sung. Part of the Society's grant is to be expended on a summer outing for the team. Pleasant celebrations are chronicled also from Mancetter, Fillongley, Elborrow, and Stratford-on-Avon. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 11 .xsr ucT Books Received. .yf^ ^ -tr i.» Ct%^nM^^lmJf M ■i^O,^- ^t^^^ttfJL^ _^^ Linley Sambourne at Mr. Punch's "^ Round Table. Reproduced b\i special permission of the Proprietors of " Punch." 0'%'%iKmt •ft ■ » — €' BIRD NOTES mo MEWS. Jasueii ^uarterl^ b^ tire floral ^acitt^ for t\}z ^rotcrtion of ^iria. Vol. IV.— No. 3.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [SEPT. 29, 1910. MR. LINLEY SAMBOURNE AND THE BIRDS. I HE great world of those who draw weekly delight from the pages of Punch have sustained a heavy loss in the death, on August 3rd, 1910, of the distinguished cartoonist and illustrator, Mr. Edward Linley Sambourne. To the E-oyal Society for the Protection of Birds it is a personal loss. Both in public, in the exercise of his art, and in private ]VIr. Sambourne was one of the first to encourage and support the young Society in its struggles against an evil fashion. He joined it as a member in 1892, and in doing so sketched beneath his signa- ture a large egg ; this, he wrote, represented the embryo Society, and from it, he hoped a bird might be hatched which " should extend her protecting pinions over all her tribe." In Punch of May 14th in the same year appeared his powerful cartoon, " A Bird of Prey " — a modern harpy decked in stolen plumage — with accompanying letter- press referring to " the laudable endeavours of the Society for the Protection of Birds " in opposing " the Harpy Fashion." In 1899 a correspondence in the newspapers between the Society and the trade, on the subject of the " Osprey " plume, furnished him with the subject of another scathing cartoon, in which he depicted " The Fashion- plate Lady and the Egrets," a fashionable figure insolently parading her feathered headgear, surrounded by supplicating and dying birds. Both these cartoons are re- produced, by express permission, on lantern- slides owned by the Society. Homely British Birds also had, it need hardly be said, a kindly friend in Mr. Punch's genial " Sammy." In one of his letters to the Society, \vTitten from a home county, he says : " This country house of my daughter's is a Paradise for Birds, and there is a Robin now in the room so tame that he has come through two other rooms to get here." At the foot of the page is added one of his characteristic little sketches, the Robin's scarlet breast bemg indicated with the red ink so often called in to ornament and emphasize his correspondence. In another letter Mr. Sambourne A\-rote, " Personallj^ I hold myself ready to assist you in any way I can by my work " ; and on several occasions it was the wish of the Committee that the Society's Christmas card should be designed by his fertile fancy, but un- fortunately extra work and other causes hindered the project. The frontispiece to the present number of Bird Notes and News must serve, therefore, with the cartoons already referred to, as the R.S.P.B. souvenir of a member of Mr. Punch's staff who, like Mr. Punch himself, has ever befriended the cause of the Birds. The portrait of Mr. Sambourne is reproduced by special permission ; the bird-sketches are examples of the pen-drawings that invariably decorated his letters to the Society ; the autograph facsimile is a part of the note already quoted. Mr. Samboiu"ne, who was born in London in 1845, has been a regular contributor to Punch since 1867, succeeding Sir John Tenniel as chief cartoonist in 1900. To his successor, Bird Protection owes the cartoon "A modern St. Francis," reproduced ia Bird Notes and News, Vol. III., Xo. 2. 26 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. usr The Story of Bird Protection. UcT PART III It would be difficult to say when the feeling against the use of wild-bird plumage for millinery was first manifested. The fashion itself, as we know it to-day, is an eruption of the modern dress-fever, and was conspicuously manifested in the mid- Victorian era of veneer and gaudiness. The earliest protest that took the ears of the world was that made by Professor Newton at the British Association at Norwich in 1868. It is an interesting sequel to his passionate denunciation of the feathered woman on that occasion, that in one of the rooms of the British Association at its meet- ing at Sheffield this year (1910) were exhibited the photographic enlargements, lent by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, depicting " The Story of the Egret." His words have become, and deservedly become, historic ; they are equally applicable to KittiAvakes' wings of 1868 and the " Osprey " of 1910 : " Fair and innocent as the snowy plumes may appear in a lady's hat, I must tell the wearer the truth — she bears the murderer's brand on her forehead." Historic also is Miss Lydia Becker's defence, her earnest assurance that women needed only to know of the carnage and the cruelty involved in order to cease from supporting such a mode. Unfortunately Miss Becker, like many of her followers of the present day, understood only a minority of her sex. Professor Newton went straight to the root of the matter : " That a stop should be put to this wanton and atrocious destruction of a species, aggravated as it is by circumstances of peculiar cruelty, I think none of my audience will deny. . . . The only question is how it should be done. ... It seems to me that legislative interference is absolutely required, for we can hope to excite the interest of Parhament in the matter sooner than we can that of the nation at large." At that time the birds especially threatened were the Kittiwake gulls on the British coast ; they were killed at the breeding-time, as Egrets and other birds are killed to-day, not only because the feathers, as with all wild birds are brightest at the mating season, but because it is easier to approach and destroy birds when they are on and about their nests. It was to these birds of our own shore that Professor Newton alluded ; there was no apparent danger of the extirpa- tion of Kittiwakes throughout the world. But the defence was not brought forward that therefore the destruction did not matter — that when the birds became very scarce it would not pay to kill them and that accord- ingly they might as well be reduced to that status in the interests of trade. This pitiful Hne of argument was reserved for the present day. In 1869 the Act for the Preservation of Seabirds put a check on the destruction of British Gulls and produced a temporary lull in the fashion for white wings. To-day the skins and wings of seabirds and wild-fowl that are poured into the plume-market come for the most part from other lands — further Russia or islets in the Pacific ; and ladies who are at all troubled about the brand of Cain are assured that there is "no extermina- tion " and " no cruelty." Wlien the business went on round the English coast, Mr. Howard Saunders, no sentimental "faddist," described how he watched the plume-hunters at work shooting the birds, " often cutting their wings off and fiinging the victims into the sea, to struggle with feet and head until death slowly came to their relief " ; and BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 27 adds: "I have seen the cliffs absolutely spotted witli the fledglmgs which liad died of starvation." It is possible that in half civilized lands, where there is neither law nor public opinion to be faced, the hunter is wentle and tender and merciful ; but it is not probable. Such slaughter of Kittiwakes and other sea-birds as now goes on round the British coast is due to one or other of two causes. Tlie statutory Close-time ends on August 1st, before the nesting-period is over ; many of the young birds can scarcely fly, while others are still in the nest. As, however, County Councils can prolong the Close-time, or can protect the species all the year, the remedy lies in their hands. The second danger is created by a defect in tlie law, which in one or two instances lias frustrated the action of Councils ; but tlie Royal Society for the Protection of Birds hoj)e to see it speedily remedied. UcT The Plume Treide. UcT The Committee which has been appointed by the Earl of Crewe, consisting of representa- tives of the Colonial Office and of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, to con- sider the whole question of the protection of plumage birds, has received two additions, in the persons of the Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P., Parliamentary Under-Secretary for India, and Mr. Percy Illingworth. The first-named has for many years past made a sj)ecial stud}^ of Ornithology, \\iiilst Mr. Illingworth has been added to the Committee as the representative of the Board of Trade, which, it may be recalled, was con- sulted with respect to the Bill dealing with the same subject which was introduced by Lord Avebury. The object of the Committee is to see how far it may be possible to devise means either by legislation or departmental control to prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of j)lumage birds ^^-hich is taking place in almost every part of the world. The Observer (August 7th) understands that the Committee have already decided to recommend very strong measures in order to put an end to a system mainly dependent upon illicit traffic. There is a strong feeling that the Colonies should give effect to legisla- tive measures to prevent the exportation of bird skins for millinery purposes, and if this is done, the Government wiU see -that the possibility of smuggling feathers into the English market is reduced to a minimum. It is realised that one of the most j)opular artifices is to get the feathers forwarded throu^i indirect channels, and the co-opera- tion of European Governments is therefore essential before any prohibitory plan can be made of value in the desired direction. Hence it is proposed to call a special international conference, at which resolutions will be moved pledging the British Empire, the Continent and the United States to 'united action. Autumn is being ushered in with even more than the usual display of feathers in the milliners' shops, chiefly in the form of huge wings and fans " shoutmg " the blatant vulgarity of such adornments. The season is also marked bj'' a great display of activity and eloquence on the part of the plume-trade, who have laid some curious statements before the news- paper public. The narrative of " moulted plumes " mysteriously circulated two years ago by a person or persons too modest to 28 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. give their names (and fully answered by the R.S.P.B. at the time), re-appeared recently as a newspaper article ; but it is interesting to note that in this case Mr. Leon Laglaize omits his former assertion that the best plumes are obtained from the lining of nests. That part of the story has presumably been recognized as injudicious, seeing that Herons and Egrets have not hitherto been known to line their nests with feathers of any des- cription. Another statement is jDublished in the Paris notes of a women's paper, and else- where, in the form of an "indignant protest" from " the President of Union of French Feather Manufacturers." No doubt such a union exists, although as there are no such things as manufactured feathers, its title has an odd sound. " It is not true," says this individual, " that birds are massacred to suit the demands of fashion. It is an abominable legend." Seeing that the mas- sacre has become so enormous and so notorious a scandal as to demand a House of Lords enquiry, a strong resolution from the International Ornithological Conference, and a Government Committee, this assertion can only be admired for its size and boldness. Somewhat less in dimensions is the as- severation of Mr. Hamel Smith in the Daily Graphic of September 2nd (and perhaps else- where) that he " has never heard of such a thing" with regard to "the full tropics," as Egret feathers being obtained " by taking the mother birds and leaving the young to starve," and that all his travelling friends associated with " the full tropics " maintain also that there is no truth in the statement. " If such a case occurred at all, it was in Australia, but then it lias to be proved that a collector for the millinery trade was the cause of the trouble." Of course, this is absolute nonsense. If Mr. Hamel Smith knoAvs anything at all about the matter — and as he has been in the trade, he probably does— he knows that the disgraceful case of the Herons of Florida (the remnant of which has now to be guarded from the plume- hunters by armed wardens who carry their life in their hands) has been paralleled, in its essential fact of the wholesale slaughter of parent birds, in India, in China, in Argentina, in British Guiana. The words of Professor Newton's letter to the Times (February 25th, 1899) are as true to-day as when they were written : — "It is a fact known to everyone who will take the trouble to inquire, that all these Egrets are shot down at their breeding places while they are building their nests or rearing their young, and that if so be that the latter are hatched, they die of hunger on their parents' death, the breeding-places being absolutely devastated by the " plume hunters." The personal experience on this point of Mr. W. E. D. Scott, a competent and unimpassioned witness, has never been, and cannot be, refuted as regards the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, where the settlements of the birds are all but extinguished ; but the same thing goes on all over the world wherever Egrets are found in numbers sufficient to make their destruction a profitable enterprise." The truth is so familiar that it can hardly be repeated without an apology to readers of Bird Notes and News ; but it is just as well to bear in mind and to contrast the state- ments of scientific men and those of the plume-trade. It is also worth remembering that the former were left almost unheeded so long as trade profits were in no immediate danger ; an occasional rehabilitation of the " artificial osprey " story sufficed. The reference to Australia is amusing as it is so obviously prompted by the exhibition of the Society's photograj)lis (taken in New South Wales by Mr. Mattingley) showing " The Story of the Egret." Mr. Mattingley's letterpress in the Emu is apparently overlooked. Mr. Hamel Smith goes on to repeat the suggestion he made some years ago, when endeavouring to get the Indian Edict forbidding the export of plumage BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 21) abolished, that " it may be necessary in some centres to establish a close season, not only for Egrets but other birds as well." How Mr. Smith proposes to obtain egret- plumes that are borne by the birds at the nesting-time only, if that nesting-time is a close season, he does not explain. In India the law against exportation has been met by smuggling ; and it is obvious that in vast extents of country where the slaughter mainly takes place, — in swamp and forest land — close-time laws, even if enacted, could not be enforced. While a lucrative market remains open for the spoils such laws would be laughed at by the hunters. The trade has succeeded in showing that only the most drastic measures against export and import will be effectual. It is merely as a representative, and at the present moment the most conspicuous apolo- gist, of the plume-trade that Mr. Hamel Smith calls for so much attention. He has recently published a book purporting to deal with the Egret question, though it might be imagined from the assertions and ideas just quoted that he was hardly competent to act the part of an authority on the subject. The main argument of the book appears to be, that the shooting of game in England is worse than the destruction of birds for millinery, and therefore the destruction for millinery should not be interfered with. Incidentally it complains that the annual meetings of the Royal Society for the Pro- tection of Birds are not recognized as proper occasions for opponents of Bird Protection to make speeches ; that Mr. Smith himself wished to join tlie Society, in order that he might secure a right to set forth his views on such an occasion, but that his subscription was returned with thanks. The Society has probably no wish to deny the latter im- putation ; it is one of the few statements in the book that can be unhesitatingly endorsed . THE "ARTIFICIAL" OSPREY. It has been a matter for surprise that during all these years while the weary old lie of the " artificial osprey " has been forced to do duty, no effort has apparently been made to place on the market a workable substitute. Every so-called artificial osprey, though sworn to by the trade with the most circumstantial and audacious falsehoods, has been proved beyond doubt to be the feather of a Heron or Egret. Surprise at the barrenness of in- genuity or invention grows less when it is considered that the business in hand is con- cerned with the procuring and importation of feathers, not with the manufacturing of ornaments as such. It is not the trimming that is wanted, it is the sale of a certain profitable kind of trimming. At present, for the first time, a genuine imitation article is on sale at some few shops. It is not of course an " artificial feather," and could not for a moment deceive anyone with the slenderest knowledge of feathers. It is said to be made of hog's bristles. Naturally Bird Protectors have nothing to say against the wearing of hog's bristles by those who like them. It might even be an industry to encourage if it was not obvious that the bristle will be used as a cover for palming off genuine " brush ospreys," which can be had either cheaper or dearer. With curiously prophetic wusdom Ruskin wrote thirty years ago :— " Whether a hog's bristle can be turned into a feather or not, it is vital that you should know the present difference between them.''' Until every woman is able with certainty to make this distinction, or until the im- portation of Egret plumes is entirely pro- hibited, all bird-lovers are advised to fight shy of " osprey," whether really or spuriously '•■ imitation," if they do not wish to be hoaxed. 30 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. The Roydl Society for the Protection of Birds. COUNCIL MEETING. The Council met at the Middlesex Guildhall, on July 22nd, when the following Members were present : — Mr. Montagu Sharpe, in the chair ; Mr. Ernest Bell, Miss Chfton, Sir John Cockburn, Dr. Drewitt, the Hon Mrs. Drewitt, the Hon. Mrs. Henniker, Mr. W. H. Hudson, Mrs. Lemon, Mr. Meade- Waldo, Mr. Ogilvie Grant, Captain Tailby, Mr. Trevor-Battye, and Mr. F. E. Lemon (Hon. Sec). The Hon. Secretary reported the issue of four Bird Protection Orders, and announced that in Natal, by a new Act, all the native birds were now protected. In connexion with the Bird and Tree work in schools, the publication of a new leaflet. No. 65, was reported- Finance and General Purposes Committee. The Council confirmed the appomtment of Mr. J. Cardew Bedwell, B.Sc, as Hon. Sec. for Thetford and District, and received with regret the resignation of Mr. W. P. D. Stebbing as Hon. Sec. for Fulham. The following ladies and gentlemen were elected Fellows : — Carlyle S. Baer (Chicago), Colonel Mount-Batten (Kensington), Mrs. E. C. P. Hull (Redhill), the Hon. Gerald Lascelles (Lyndhurst), B. Savile Ogle (Steeple Aston), T. W. Tetley (Liverpool), Mrs. F. G. Winn (London, S.W.). The undermentioned were elected Members — W. S. Mainprice (Knutsford), Harold S. Seldon (Sutton, Surrey), Vernon Watney (Charlbury, Oxford), and Roger J. Dawson (Llandudno), Life Members. W. J. Atkinson (Hythe), Mrs. H. B. Booth (Ben Rhydding), Miss G. Bush (Devon), Mrs. G. Chichester (Pilton), Mrs. Christie (Frome), Mrs. Cobb (Saltwood), Mrs. Edward Cox (York), Mrs. Deedes (Hythe), Lord Grenfell, Lady Grenfell (Beaconsfield), Mrs. Garland (Eynsham), Miss Goadby (Southminster), Lieut. K. C. Helyar, R.N. (Gibraltar), Miss E. K. Higgins (Luton), W. G. Kendrew (Oxford), Major- General Lee (Cardiff), Mrs. R. Morton (Denham), Algernon McAnally (Cricklewood, N.W.), Mrs. Marchant (Blaekheath, S.E.), Mrs. Mount-Batten (Kensington, W.), Donald Noel-Paton (Stobo), Mrs. Patteson (Limpsfield), Mrs. Peirson (Hythe), W. H. Robinson (Mansfield), J. H. Scotcher (Liverpool), Mrs. Smythe (Beaconsfield), Sefior Emili Tarre (Barcelona), C. L. Tetley (Manchester), Oliver Vernon Watney (Charlbury, Oxford), C. R. Williams (Bedford), F. Weston (Brockenhurst). A correspondence was reported with regard to the destruction of Quails in Egypt, and it was agreed that particulars should be laid before Mr. Ronald Graham, Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior. It was also reported that Mr. Dresser had attended the Inter- national Ornithological Congress on behalf of the Society, and was able to say that more time was given to bird protection than to any other topic. Communications from the British Bu-d and Mule Club were submitted to the Council. The Chairman of the Watchers' Commit- tee reported on the work of the men employed as watchers, and on an important correspon- dence with legal officials in Scotland. The reports of Inspectors Burroughs and Norman were also submitted. General Business. — The question of legis- lation for dealing with the Plume- trade was discussed, and it was decided, after considera- tion, that the Society should support ihe second reading of Mr. Percy Alden's BUI. Various other questions were before the Council ; and at the close of the meeting the Watchers' Committee met to hear detailed accounts given by members of the Committee on their visits to the districts where Watchers are employed. Meetings of the Finance and General Purposes and the Publication Committees were held at 23, Queen Anne's Gate on September 16th. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 31 Bird Watching in 1910. The work carried on by means of the Watchers' Fund of the Royal Society for the Protection of Bu-ds becomes more important and extensive each season, and although the fund is kept distinct from general subscrip- tions, it rej^resents an integral part of the Society's efforts — field work, in distinction to educational, parliamentary, and propa- gandist work. The business of the watchers themselves is to guard the breeding-grounds of rare species which are endangered by the avidity of the modern collector ; but with these men, who are, so to speak, on " point duty," are associated the inspectors sent from the Head Office, either to investigate the depredations of bird-catchers and their colleagues of the bird-shop, or to follow up special cases where breaches of the law have to be frustrated or brought to light. This latter part of the business in particular is often of an arduous and difficult character as in searching for pole-tramps on the Welsh mountains ; and some curious and interesting stories might be told if it were possible to make public half or a quarter of the facts obtained. Unfortunately the sanctuaries of rare birds cannot be described or — in many cases — revealed without inducing the very dangers that imperil them. The rocky islet, the wide moorland, the loch or tarn, cannot be fenced round or guarded by gates ; and for the wild creatures that seek these refuges in order to bring up their young unmolested, silence is the only safety. Nor can inquiries which end, as is often the case, in prevention instead of prosecution be made public. Scotland, with the Shetland Isles, and Wales have from the first demanded a con- siderable share of the Fund, and have given good results for money expended. In the Shetlands, the home of so many rare and handsome birds, the Society has been actively engaged since 1905, and there are now in the islands six men in receipt of awards and pay- ments in return for good and useful work. One island is preserved wholly as a sanctuary, through the co-operation of the o\\'ner, assisted by a grant from the Fund. Every summer a member of the Watchers' Com- mittee visits these islands (at his own expense) and interviews the watchers. In Scotland searching investigations, conducted by an inspector, have discovered a considerable secret traffic in legally-protected birds and eggs. Tlie knowledge gained will, it is hoped, enable the Society to devise means by which these depredations may be curtailed. Among the birds reported on in north Britain this season are the Sea Eagle, Peregrine, C4reat and Arctic Skua, \A'Tiimbrel, Dunlin, Merganser, Golden Plover, Oyster-catcher and Diver. In the spring of this year it came to the Society's notice that an illegally-taken Golden Eagle was being advertised for sale, and the Procurator-Fiscal for the county (the pro- secuting official in Scotland) was accordingly communicated with. In reply the Fiscal said that he had caused the bird to be set at liberty. Later on six Eagle's eggs were adver- tised, and it was ascertained by the Society's Inspector that these were taken in the same county. The dealer and the keepers who took the eggs avowed ignorance of the law ; but a long and troublesome inquiry was neces- sita,ted by certain features of the case. No prosecution was, however, instituted. Tlie eggs were given up ; three of them were sent to the Royal Scottish Museum, Edin- burgh, and three to the Museum at Inverness. 32 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. In both Scotland and Wales colonies of Common, Lesser, and Roseate Terns have been protected by watchers. In the nortli of England, in consequence of raids made in previous years on the breed- ing-places of Buzzards, Ravens, Peregrines, and other birds, two watchers were employed. One brood was lost through the parent-bu^d being shot on a distant grouse-moor, but otherwise the results have been satisfactory. It is eminently satisfactory also to know that the Manchester Corporation are intent on preserving the M'ild birds of thsir Thirlmere estate, and to allow on it neither collectors nor gamekeepers. In the south of England, the Dungeness district has again had two watchers, and as the protected area has been wisely enlarged through the action of the East Sussex County Council, it will be necessary to em- ploy additional help next season if the work is to be done effectually. Norfolk, Kentish and Ringed Plover, Common and Lesser Tern, Redshanks, Mallards, Teal, and Shovellers hatched off their broods in safety. Oyster- catchers frequented the beach, but did not build, and the Herons did not nest this spring. A colony of Common Terns nested in the full glare of the Lighthouse lamps, and some of the Kentish Plover settled down to housekeeping quite indifferently in the line of the shells from the big guns. Avocets, HoopoeS; and Black Terns were seen during the summer. The rarer birds of Devon, Dorset, Corn- wall and the Isle of Wight have been specially " watched," on account of the known inten- tions of collectors to secure either birds or eggs. Useful help was given by the Coastguard, especially in Cornwall and the Isle of Wight. Choughs, Ravens, Buzzards, Peregrines and other species have been preserved. In one district, where young Peregrine Falcons have been systematically taken, for sale, the Inspector found out, watched and warned the offender, and had the satisfaction of seeing the birds safely fly before he left the place. In another county it was ascertained that two young Falcons had been taken from the nest by a lad of fourteen, who was lowered over the cliff by a soldier, the idea being to sell the birds for falconry. Before the offence was traced, the offender liad left tlie Battery, time-expired, but the Officer in command has given orders that no wild birds are to be interfered with in future. The boy was not prosecuted. The birds were confiscated and were sent by the police to the Zoological Gardens in London, for, having been taken from the nest when only just hatched, they would, if released, have been unable to feed or fend for themselves. Some account of the work of the Society's Inspector among the bird-catchers was given in the last number of Bird Notes and News. Active work of this kind has been rendered possible only by special subscriptions and donations. It is necessarily expensive, as thoroughly trustworthy men must bs engaged and properly remunerated. Railway and other expenses are also heavy. The Society is convinced that in no other way can the law be effectually maintained, as regards either rare species, on which the trading collector has always a covetous eye, or the friendly little birds which give charm and song to our country and are so direly perse- cuted by the bird-catcher. An earnest appeal is therefore made to all who do not as yet support the ivork, for subscriptions and donations either to the general fund or the Watchers^ branch. If a regular income could be guaranteed, experienced Inspectors could be permanently engaged, and do much excellent work throughout the year. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 33 ^^cT ucT Economic Ornithology, usr usr GAMEKEEPERS AND BIRDS. Although the gamekeeper as naturalist can hardly be expected to shake himself wholly free of a tendency to regard Nature as a doubtful character of the poacher order, the intelligent gamekeeper occasionally makes good use of such an opportunity of studying the ways of birds as falls to few men. The gentleman -keeper who, under the name of Owen Jones, writes of " Ten Years of Game- keeping " (Edward Arnold, 1910), has some interesting remarks on several of those species of wild birds which are usually seen on the " gibbet." Even Sparrow-Hawks are not painted wholly black by this writer, but are declared not to inflict damage on game " to a degree anything like proportionate to the zeal with which their destruction is sought." " I averaged," says Mr. Owen Jones, " for ten years on the same ground, three nests of Kestrels and two of Sparrow-Hawks, and they never did any noticeable damage." He adds : " I regret to say that the last surviving pair of Magpies in the locaUty where I was keepering were picked up in 1909 by a keeper (not myself) — that is to say, they were not trapped or shot, but poisoned. Utterly to exterminate birds so handsome may save a trifle of game for the gun, but surely such extremes of preservation can only bring uj^on the perpetrators the derision and disgust of all sane people. A judicious thinning of Hawks and Mag- pies is c^i^ite enough to satisfy the demands of any sportsman, and their extinction is bound to react to the detriment of the selfish few. . . . No sane keeper would wish to be without a sprinkling of Jays, in his wood, for he has no naore vigilant and useful sentinels. " Some Owls occasionally kill young pheasants, while others sometimes frighten them ; therefore, all Owls ought to be slain. So reason many keepers who ought to know better. The trvith is this : few Owls do any harm at all to game, and all Owls do far more good than harm. The Short-eared Owls, by preying on young game, may incur the wrath of the keeper in the North, where they breed, but, seeing that in the South these Owls appear only when there is no young game, there is no case against them. " Reviewing the vermin question as a whole, I admit that there is much room for improvement in the attitude of keepers. However, I am certain that since education means enlightenment, and modern preservation and shooting demand keepers of better education than formerly, the time is not far distant when all keepers will be men of educa- tion, and therefore of enlightenment. In this way, and in no other, will come about a rational dis- crimination in the matter of creatures now so often slaughtered indiscriminately as vermin." " Wliat the thinking keeper of to-day resents," the writer proceeds, " is that all keepers should be tarred witli the sins of individuals." Much the same thing might be said by the thinking Owi or Hawk. A more serious indictment of the keeper and his master is made by the Avriter on country sjDort in the Sketch (May 4th, 1910). " There is," he says. " every reason to believe that the Wild Birds Protection Act is a dead letter to the average under-kceper, and even the head man is not often well informed. To make matters worse there is no super- vision. " I know one keeper on a small estate near the sea-coast who, being a taxidermist in a modest way, has stuffed all the rare birds that have come his way. The collection include two Bustards, several Peregrine Falcons, some Grebes, a Flamingo, a Stork, several Eider-Ducks, and other birds so seldom associated with our coast, that I am forced to believe he must owe a part of his collection to birds that have escaped from the aviaries of col- lectors many miles away. The shooting of most of them was an indictable offence, but I never heard that he was harshlj^ criticised on that account." A WORD FOR THE SPARROW. Miss Violet Burke writes to the Hampshire Chronicle (July 16th) : — ■ " I happen to be in a position to give evidence from my owti experience of the uses of the Sparrow, which has perhaps the very blackest character in all birdhood. Seated in a garden the other day, I was watching with some dismay a promising rose-tree bursting into flower, but smothered in green-fly. Presently, however, came to this stricken plant a little rascally Sparrow, followed at once, as is the Sparrow way, by many others ; and ere I had watched their proceedings for many minutes I found that hardly a green-fly was left on the tree." 34 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. UcT UcT ./or Notes. .jsr ucT UcT GULLS AND FLSH. Sir James Crichton-Browne's enthusiastic commendation of fish as food, in his presi- dential address at the Sanitary Inspectors' Conference, August 30th, is notable as a comment upon the periodical outcry that the Gulls or the Cormorants or some other terrible winged creatures are devouring man's potential food, and bringing ruin on the fisheries. It was. Sir James said, much to be hoped that the propaganda undertaken by the Fishmongers Company in conjunction with the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association, would increase the demand for cheap fish. " It was lamentable to reflect that enormous quanties of good, wholesome, nourishing fish were year by year thrown back into the sea, or converted into manure because it would not pay to bring it to market." To which statement, the Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company, interviewed by the Daily Mail, added : " There can be no doubt that the supply of the coarser, that is the cheaper, kind of fish, such as ling, haddock, plaice, skate, mackerel, codlings, sprats, and herrings, is practically illimitable." Yet not so long ago we were being told that thousands of pounds sterling are lost to the nation because gulls eat herrings that could otherwise be sold at a penny a-piece ! NESTING=BOXES. The R.S.P.B. business in nesting boxes, commenced tentatively with the object of l^opularising the custom and providing pat- terns, has gro\vTi so greatly that it will now be carried on as a distinct branch of the work ; and it will be of great assistance in expediting despatch of boxes if those order- ing them will mark their envelope " Nesting- Boxes." Pleasant tales have been received of happy little families reared in many of these boxes, and the pleasure they afforded. One observer noted that for a range of twenty yards round his Tit-box green-fly was fairly cleared off his fruit-trees ; he sent for more boxes to place outside that range. IN SWITZERLAND. L'Etoile Beige (Sept. 4th, 1910) quotes the experiences of M. Joseph Soly, an ardent worker for Bird Protection in Belgium, as to the greater tamcness of wild birds in Germany and especially in Switzerland, than in his own land. All over Switzerland, he remarks, there is constant solicitude for the little birds ; in the public parks you find troops of Blackbirds and Starlings, and on the hotel terraces marauding sparrows and finches chirp around the tables to attract the attention of visitors. This will not seem remarkable to English readers, and in Brussels, comments UEtoile, the house- sparrows in the Park are tame enough. M. Soly adds, however, that placards hung in prominent places invite the residents to feed the winged folk in the winter. Little tables, covered with roofs, are set up in the parks and on lawns to hold food, and nothing is more touching than to see the urchins on their way to school place scraps of bread there as a pious duty. The citizens, the shopkeepers, everyone, in fact, watches over the hungry birds. The same kindliness no doubt exists in London and in Brussels. M. Soly might see clerks and workmen feed- ing gulls on the London bridges ; street-arabs regaling park sparrows. But he would not find much in the way of bird-table or nesting- box in the official parks and gardens. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 35 UgT Bird dnd Tree (Arbor) Day. ^ TO ^ ^° OWLS \ J i >c.u-- 1 ir ir \ I \ ( Jl \ 'i ENCUAUO 8. wAues 4^ 4 i 11 1 i 1 i fw It 1 : H Ik r /y f l" Y 0% 4 Jr^ ^-y. J :E= < .^if- e.ST I ^ ffi 'kimr ^UWf RIOINO \ ^, k^, Bred fort/ HjII iv E R E FO RO '■'■ ' vYarwick^ ^ h Y- fUlNTINGDOl EN VBRECKNOC '-'~- --^surrTy'" x^ ken t^I"'"*" '^^ ; L^ S O M E R SET J C HANTS V / 'hr^s—J^^ "^^ -O/-^ ' '-^ f/Mi rffW^ ^ y / ° ^ VON > \j^y^ 0 0 R s t : v^^^ '--Lf^^'"--^ ( i J^ x-- •f / c^f Oi -^ 1 _ It is Illegal for any person to kill or take an Owl during the Close Time in any part of the United Kingdom. It is Illegal for any person to kill or take an Owl at any time of the Year in Areas left WHITE on the Map. In Dorset, the Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, and Long-eared Owl are protected all the Year ; in Sussex the Barn Owl ; in Gloucestershire the Long-eared Owl. See, "page 41. BIRD NOTES mo MEWS JIasuEiJ Q^uarterlii bv the lloijjil ^ocictj] for tljK protection of ^iriia. Vol. IV.— No. 4.] London : 23, Quken Anne's Gate, S.W. [DEC. 20, 1910. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— lY. CHECK liaving been given by Act of Parliament to tlie slaugliter of British sea-birds for the sake of tlieir A\ings, the next outbreak of feather-wearing was concerned chiefly w ith small birds. In the seventies and early eighties, Robins, Blackbirds, Swallows, and the like were in vogue with a certain class of society, but foreign species were coming more and more into tlie market ; means of transport ^\ere increasing and cheapening, and it was growing more profitable to employ hunters abroad to destroy the brilliant birds of the tropics, than to procure material in a civilized country where this senseless destiniction of bird-life was viewed with increasing disfavour. While legislation was drawing the protective cordon more closely round our home birds, tlie great forests and swamps of America, and vast regions in the East, teeming with a magnificent bird-life, had gro^^"n accessible ; and in such places there were no watchful eyes to observe the hunters' methods as Mr. Howard Saunders and others had noted them at home. In 1876 Professor Newton wrote to the Times (January 28th) to express liis horror, on perusing part of a catalogue of one of the London feather sales : " For I had no conception of the amount of destruction to which exotic birds are condemned by fashion — an amount which cannot fail speedily to extirpate some of the fairest members of creation, for I must preixiise for the benefit of your non- ornithological readers that it is chiefly, if not solely, at the breeding season that the most beautiful, and tlierefore the most valuable feathers, are developed in birds." In the same year the Baroness Burdett- Coutts remonstrated, also in the Times, against the use, or abuse, of Humming-birds, which were being introduced in profusion on hats, etc. Punch, too, uttered its pithy rebuke (February 19th, 1876) : The Bird Question. " Oh, would I wear a bird ! " Not if I were a lady. And a couple of years later (January 5th, 1878) the Sage of Fleet-street drew contempt upon a fashionable wedding at wliich the bridesmaids appeared with a trimming of lioUy and Robins on their dresses, intimating his wish to give '"a trimming of his own to the unwomanly woman who devised it." Mrs. S. C. Hall and other writers had deprecated the fashion in the earliest numbers of the Animal World ; and the subject was definitely brought to the fore by the Tunbridge Wells S.P.C.A., so long associated witli the name of Mrs. Edward Phillips, after\\-ards one of the most influential pioneers of the Society for the Protection of Birds. Its Report for 1874 specifically named among ways " in A\hicli all may lessen the sufferings of animals," " by never using for dress or ornament of any kind, birds, butterflies, or sealskins." A more definite effort was at hand. Ideas and plans for an association or league of persons, banded together expressly to resist the growing trade in plumage, were forming in the minds of more than one bird-lover. The Rev. F. O. Morris, the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, and Mr. G. A. Musgrave were severally considering the matter. In August, 1885, Mr. Musgrave protested in the Times, as Professor Newton had protested -38 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. nine years earlier, against the facts disclosed by the feather sales. Between December, 1884, and April, 1885, he wrote, there had been sold at the London mart 6,828 Birds- of-paradise, 4,974 Inij)eyan Pheasants, 770 so-called Argus Pheasants, 404,464 West Indian and Brazilian birds, and 356,389 East Indian birds of various kinds. He added : " My object in bringing the slaughter of birds to your notice is not an endeavour to excite feeHngs <)f pity for them from a zoophilian point of view, for one of our leading ornithologists tells me that ladies who listen to his appeals are quite hardened on such a point, but to endeavom- to check the career of the money-grabbing wretch who by means of his shooting scouts lays bare the tropical forests •of their chiefest beauty. ... Is there no Society willing to care for the beauty of the world ? " The Times in a leading article on the same day strongly supported Professor jSTewton's plea. The article has a curious interest just now, as it shows in some of its comments how far Bird Protectors and the Empire generally have progressed in this matter in twenty-five years. x4.fter expressing the conviction tliat London was but a mart and exchange for the bulk of these feathers, the Times observed : " Whatever the destruction may be, it is manifest that the English law can have no influence over it ; and that even when birds are obtained from British colonies it would probably be difficvilt to educate colonial legislatures to the extent of inducing them to afford the necessary amount of protection." To-day many voices in Greater Britain are asking the Mother Country to support colonial protective laws by refusing to admit the plumage through her door. And the Times, in a leading article (November 26th, 1910), makes the following reference to a petition on the subject recently presented to the Colonial Secretary on behalf of self- governing Colonies : " The whole subject was threshed out two years ago by the Select Committee of the House of Lords, which considered Lord Avebury's Importation of Plumage Bill. It was made abvmdantly clear by the W'itnesses who then spoke on behalf of the Colonies and of India, that the Bill had the hearty sympathy of various Governments, and that it would greatly strengthen their own hands. . . . The representations now made to Mr. Harcovirt will, we doubt not, receive his own most sympathetic consideration as well as the earnest support of a large and increasing body of British opinion." Meanwhile a league, such as Mr. Musgrave desired to see, had come into being in the drawing-room of Broadlands, Hampshire, famous as the residence, first of Lord Palmerston and at this time of the dis- tinguished philanthropists Lord and Lady Mount-Temple. Its earliest members are said by one well qualified to know, to have been Lady Mount-Temple, John Ruskin, the Rev. F. 0. Morris, Ihe Rev. George Macdonald and his wife, the Rev. Basil Wilberforce (now Archdeacon of Westmin- ster), and Madame Antoinette Sterling. To this powerful little band and its converts and adherents Mr. Morris alluded in a letter Vv'hich appeared in the Times four months after that from Mr. Musgrave (December 18th, 1885). He quotes a communication from Lady Mount-Temple in which she authorizes him to use her name and promises to get as many ladies as she can to join the " Plumage League." Mr. Morris refers also to evidence given by Sir Charles Dilke before the Thames Conservators, to show that even the Wild Birds Protection Act failed to save the Thames Kingfishers from the plumage- hunter ; other birds whose wings were " ^v anted " were likewise shot, including the Common Sandpiper. The Hon. Mrs. Boyle quickly wrote to hail the Plumage League " with intense thankfulness." " The l)arbarous fashion of wearing stuffed skins of beautiful iimocent birds is becoming nothing less than a vice. . . . Nothing can be more contrary to the canons of taste in dress. No instance of such a fashion can be jjointed to in any of the older and nobler examples of costume which remain to us in jDictures and engravings. The only parallel that exists is the savage who ornaments himself with skulls of his slain enemies." The Times supported the new League, remarking in a leading article that " As a BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 39 mere miitter of taste there can be no doubt about the matter. A live bird is a beautiful thing, A dead bird is a very ugly thing. Even when stuffed and in a glass case it is a barely tolerable curiosity." Lady Mount- Temple and the Hon. Mrs. Boyle became joint secretaries, and everything promised well for the " Plumage League." Following closely on the announcement of the Broadlands league came the formation of the " Selborne League," of which Mr. Musgrave A\as the active spirit. This advocated the use of the feathers of the ostrich and of birds killed for food and " as noxious pests." The coincidence of the two societies was somewhat unfortunate. The earlier association was in 1886 merged in the Selbome, but the Selbome League itself expanded shortly afterwards into the Selborne Society, in whose programme the preservation of wild birds and the dis- couragement of feather-wearing were bracketed with otlier such excellent objects as the preservation of all harmless wild animals and plants, the protection of places and objects of natural beauty, the promotion of field-clubs, and tlie study of natural history in general ; no personal pledge was required from members, though presumably it was implied. There ^\•as therefore again a place vacant for a society which should devote its attention exclusively to tiie increasingly-important question of the pro- tection and preservation of birds. In February, 1889, the Society for the Protection of Birds came into existence. {To be continued.) UCT The Plume Trade. UcT It is not necessary to give any reply in Bird Notes and Nevs^s to the various statements and assertions put forth recently by Plume-traders in an attempted defence of the traffic in the plumage of ^ild birds. Fe\^', if any, of these statements are new ; most of them have been answered many times by the R.S.P.B. ; and the facts must be fairly well known to members of the Society. Nor is this the place to answer attacks on and innuendoes against the Society — weapons natural enough where others are defective. It is, however, interesting to notice tliat the defence has been entirely switched oif from the thoroughly discredited story of the " artificial osprey," which deceived so many credulous ladies, and is now centred on the story of the Venezuelan " garceros." It is the contention of the trade, our readers will remember, that there are estates in Venezuela where Egrets are " protected " and moulted feathers alone collected. On these ideal areas the public eye is focussed, much as though some slave-raider were to exhibit pictures showing the happy lot of " Some slaves I have known." From the notes on the history of Bird Protection in the present number of Bird Notes and News, it vnll be seen that for more than thirty years the protest against the trade in birds' feathers has been growing stronger and more urgent ; and it has come from men of science like Professor Newton, Sir William Flower, and Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, as well as from travellers who have visited the lands despoiled, and from persons of humanity and common- sense, wlio have had the plain evidence of the feather-sales. So long as the protest led to no more than an ajjpeal to woman's sentiment, 40 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. the trade did not greatly trouble themselves ; they held up the little god labelled " fashion," and they uttered soothing falsehoods about " artificial plumes." But now that statesmen have taken the question seriously in hand, such tactics will not answer. Sale statistics must be kept in the dark. Enquirers into the whole facts of the case which have been accumulating for thirty years, and \\hich deal A\itli many parts of the world and with nuiny species of birds, are to be assured that a certain Mr. Leon Laglaize (who assuredly is not now unknown to fame) tells quite another story about certain Egret plumes obtained in certain parts of Venezuela.* Readers of the National Review who saw Mr. Do\Miham's article on " The Trade in Feathers" in the November Number (1910) will, it is hoped, also see the letter from Mr. Montaga Sharpe in the December issue. It is impossible in this matter to overlook the fact that on the one side is a large body of people ^^•ho have no private end to serve, but who are impelled by conscience, humanity, and scientific knowledge to protest against the exploitation of life and beauty for an incredibly paltry purpose ; and on the other side is an angry trade with its profits in jeopardy. The Madras Mail, commenting in a leading article (September 12th, 1910) on a letter which it publishes from the Secretary of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says : " At present, as most of our readers are aware, there is an Indian Act forbidding the exj^ortation of plumage from this country, but so long as this market (Great Britain) remains ojDen and commerce in dead biixls continues a jirofitable business, laws against exjiortation will be more or less evaded. We in India know well that this is true, and most of us also know how cruel are the methods of some of the so-called shikaris who kill or catch the unfortunate birds whose plumage happens at the moment to be in reqviest. For this reason, a book which has recently been published in the interests * See R.S.P.B. Leaflet No. 61, "How Osprey Feathers are Procured." of the plumage merchants, " Aigrettes and Bird- skins," will evoke little sympathy in India. Indeed, it would more probably be read with feelings of derision or of ridicule on account of its erroneous conclusions and fallacious arguments were its subject not so patlietic." The Times (November 26th, 1910) comments as follows on the Importation of Plumage Prohibition Bill (framed and supported by the R.S.P.B. as the result of a consultation of Societies and individual workers held by Lord Avebury's invitation) and on the arguments of the trade : " In the evidence given before the House of Lords Committee in 1908 the statements of the feather merchants that the trade neither involved 'the cruel slaughter of birds in the midst of the breeding season, nor threatened the extermination of rare species, were conclusively disproved by exjjert scientific evidence. Hunaan lives, as well as those of birds, have been murderously sacrificed to this industry. . . The most substantial objections urged agamst the Bill were that the closing of the London market to wild birds' plumage might divert the traffic to the Continent, and deprive British workers of their emi^loyment. It was shown, how- ever, that the work of making up wild birds' plumage was a mmor part of a general industry dealing with ostrich feathers and other unobjection- able forms of milUnery ; and there was little reason to conclude that the exclusion of this particular form of raw material would lead to the employment of fewer hands. Lord Avebury's Bill was among those which had ultimately to be sacrificed to the pressure of more contentious business. It is much to be hoped that its proposals may be passed into law at the earliest possible opportimity which can be found in the new Parliament for business of an uncontentious character. A lead would thus be given to other nations in a matter in which en- lightened opinion on the European Continent is accustomed to loolv to this comitry for initiative. "THE STORY OF THE EGRET." A novel and attractive method of ex- hibiting these photographic enlargements has been devisedby the Hon. E. S. O'Grady, Hon. Sec. for Duffield, who had them on view at the Parish Room, Duffield, last month, amid a setting of handsome plants. Mr. O'Grady himself acted as cicerone to explain the pictures; and pamphlets, leaflets and statistics were available for the use of visitors. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 41 ucT ucT Economic Ornithology, ucr ucr THE PROTECTION OF OWLS Tlio Eat Plague in Suffolk, with its attendant scare, lias drawn attention once more to the necessity for forbidding the destruction of Owls. Captam Tailb}^ as a member of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, attended the meeting on the rat question held at the Royal Institute of Public Health in London on November 2nd, and strongly urged the rigid enforcement of the law for the protec- tion of Owls and Kestrels. Other speakers and writers in the Press have endeavoured to drive home the same common-sense argument. The plea is of course no new one. Investigations have proved again and again that all four species of British Owl feed on rodents which are the cause of heavy loss every year to the agricultural com- munity, and consequently to the country at large. At the time of the great Vole Plague in Scotland, in 1892, the Secretary of the Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry (Mr. Harting) rei)orted on suggested remedies : " Finally, there is a plan which most people seem very unwilling to try, namely, to abstain from killing the natvu-al enemies of the rat — weasels, stoats, polecats. Kestrels, Owls and Buzzards." Since 1892 the value of the Owl has, it is true, been outwardly and as it were conven- tionally recognized. In a large majority of English counties all species of ths bird are protected the year through by County Bu-d Protection Orders, as is sliown by the map prefacing the present number of Bird Notes AND News. This means that no person whatsoever may lawfully kill or take an Owl at any time or season under any excuse or pretence whatever. In three counties the protection is partial as regards species, but is given fully to the Bam or White Owl. In all other counties and indeed throughout the United Kingdom, the killing of Owls is absolutely ilbgal during the Close Time. In spite of this legal protection, the des- truction of Owls and of every other bird-of- prey goes on. Tlie prejudice or obsession of the game-keeper has defied the teaching of every naturalist from Waterton onwards ; and both the keeper and his master are disposed to consider that the preservation of game places them above the law of the land, even though in their stupidity they are killing the best friends of both farmer and game-preserver, A writer in the Observer (November 13th 1910) says : " One can never imderstand the unreasoning hostility of many coiuitry folk, and especiallj' of gamekeepers, to the Owl. Only a few daj's ago I was shooting in an Essex wood, and the keeper pointed with pride to his well stocked vermin larders — cats, stoats, weasels, hedgehogs, Jays, Magpies, Jackdaws, Crows, rats. ' But why these OwLs — five in number — what harm do they do you or your game ? ' Needless to say, no satisfactory reply was forthcoming." The rei)ly is usually given promptly enough — the birds •' disturb " the Pheasants, or have been " seen " to take chicks ; the fact probably being that rats and mice haunt the coop and rick, and Owls come after the rats and mice. Even if they took an occasional Pheasant chick, the country could better spare the Pheasants than the Owls. The chairman of the Hadham (Herts.) Rural District Council is reported to have said at a meeting of that body on December 1st : " Until we get rid of gamekeepers who upset the balance of Nature by shooting foxes, stoats, \\ easels, Jays, Magpies, and Hawks, we shall never get rid of the enormous number of rats in rural districts." But what about Owls ? Hertfordshire is tlie only Home County in which these birds are not fully protected. 42 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. The Roydl Society for the Protection of Birds. COUNCIL MEETING. Mr. Montagu Sharpe, Chairman, presided at the meeting of the Council, at the Middle- sex Guildhall, on October 7th. There were also present : Mr. Bell, Miss Clifton, Mr. Dresser, Dr. Drewitt, Miss Hall, Mrs. F. E. Lemon, Mr. Meade-Waldo, Captain Tailby, Mr. Trevor-Battye, Mr. F. E. Lemon (Hon. Secretary), and Miss Gardiner (Secretary). The Hon. Secretary's Report stated that a new Bird Protection Order had been issued for Hertfordshire ; that ten public schools had sent in essays for the Public Schools Silver Medal Competition ; that tliree lectures had been given in connexion with the Society ; and that a number of festivals had been held in celel)ration of Bird and Tree Day. The Finance and General Purposes Committee presented the accounts. Five new Fellows and twenty-one Members were elected as follows : Fellows. — The Earl of Haddington, Miss Helen Brothers (Putney, S.W.), Miss D. R. George (Bays- water, W.), R. Fuller Maitland (London, S.W.), Rev. Canon Rawnsley (Keswick). Members. — Mrs. S. A. Barnett (Westminster, S.W.), Herbert Catterall (Lancaster); G. D. Dakyns, F. H. Dakyns (Morpeth), Mrs. W. H. Eyre (London, W.), W. J. Gordon (Shetland), Miss Jean Graham (Grasmere), Lady Aurea Howard (Castle Howard), Miss A. M. Lamb (Wroxham), Miss Macnaughton (Perth), Martyn Mowll (Dover), Mrs. Muirhead (Hythe), Mrs. Oliver (Tynemouth), Harold Peers (Didsbury), Mrs. Kenyon Slaney (Hythe), G. P. Tyrwhitt-Drake (Scawby), Ernest Weddell (Jesmond), Mrs. W. H. Wood (Lindley, Huddersfield). Life Members. — Harry Collison (London, S.W.), Miss E. A. Harwood (Windlesham), Lady Ela Russell (Rickmansworth). The Committee reported that tlie attitude of plumage dealers towards legislation for tlie preservation of ornamental-plumaged birds had had their careful consideration ; and a discussion on the subject resulted in resolutions being adopted for a steady prosecution of the Society's efforts to procure legislation. Arrangements with regard to the sale of nesting-boxes were agreed to. A cordial vote of thanks was passed to Mr. McLellan for the presentation of a number of slides to the Society, and to Mrs. Suckling for the gift of slides to illustrate songs. The Publication Committee reported on the preparation of Bird Notes and News and the Society's Christmas-card and postcards. A variety of other matters were brought before the Council. The Watchers Committee met on October 13th, when the districts and birds in need of special attention next season were discussed at length, and complaints considered arising out of the " ringing " of birds, the use of tlie pole-trap, and the killing of Owls. A further meeting of tlie Council was lield on December 16th. PUBLIC SCHOOLS ESSAY COMPETITION. The first Public School Essay Competition organized by the Society has produced some excellent work, and it is hoped that one or two of the essays, or extracts from them, may appear in future numbers of Bird Notes and News. The first of the two alternative subjects suggested — personal observations of a bird or birds made during the year — was selected by all the competitors, and nearly the whole of the papers fall into Division I, being the work of students over sixteen years of age. The final judging was referred to Mr. Montagu Sharpe (Chairman of Council) and Mr. T. Hastings Lees, F.Z.S. The result is as follows : BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 4:i Senior Division. Silver Medal and Work on Natural History: A. E. Aldous (Repton) " Tha Lapwing." Certificates of Special Merit and Worlds on Natural History : J.D. Bell (Bedford), " The Hawks of Bedford." O. Hook (Charterhouse), " Great Crested Grebe." J. K. Stanford (Rugby), " The Owls." Certificates : C. M. Dyer (Clifton), "Blackcap" ; E. R. Wilson (Glenalmond), " Tawny Owl" ; C. T. Cannon (Tonbridge), " Chaffinch " ; B. A. Medley (Winchester), "Moorhen." Special Au-ard, Bronze Medal : J. M. Charlton (Uppingham), " The Birds of Gigha." The essay last named scarcely comes within the rules of the competition, being an account of a fortnight's holiday only, but it shows knowledge and keen interest, and is illustrated with capital sketches. The Silver Medal Essay is an admirable piece of work as regards alike originality, accuracy and diction. Bell of Bedford takes second pkce, ;md his written notes marked by excel- lent r.nd genuine observation are accompanied by good photographs. Hook and Stanford are bracketed, the former writing the more interesting and readable paper, l)ut hibouring under the disadvantage of having lost his original notes. Tlie remaining schools are wort! lily represented, Winchester by " Prefect of Hall " ; but the competitors seem as yet hardly to have settled down to the work of close and full observation required. Junior Division. Certificati of Merit : J. Symonds Taylor (Bedford), " Hawks." The Medal in this Division is not awarded, owing to insufficient competition and lack of personal observation in the work. UeT UqT UeT Notes. ucT usr UcT GOVERNMENT BIRD-PROTECTION. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have not gone very far in their intention to include bird- life in their series of leaflets. Ten only of some two hundred and forty leaflets issued by the Board deal with birds, and the last of these was published a good many years ago. In all probability the conflict of opinions has presented many difficulties. In leaflets on field and garden pests, there is rarely indeed any mention of the bird- enemies of these pests. On the other hand, " The Government of New South Wales," says the Adelaide Begister (September 24th, 1910), "is jDrinting in the Agricultural Journal beautiful coloured blocks of useful insectivorous birds and devoting a large portion of the letterpress to the subject," while the South Australian Government " are having prepared coloured plates of our protected birds for distribution among the police and m the public schools." THE USEFUL TIT. Professor Gordon Hewitt, it will be remembered, when reporting officially on the outbreak of larch disease at Thirlmere ill 1907, recommended among other things the encouragement of insectivorous birds, and especially the Tit. Accordingly sixty nesting-boxes were provided the first, year, another one hundred and fourteen added in 1908, and still another one hundred and five in 1909. The results, according to the latest report, are held to be decidedly satis- factory. Tiie number of Tits, Robins, and Starlings has increased considerably, and they feed their young industriously on the larva? of the destructive saw-fly. Food has been provided in \\'inter, but its dis- tribution on the ground having proved extravagant it is probable that food-bells will be provided this winter. 44 BIBB NOTES AND NEWS. LARKS. A Brighton correspondent says : " I saw on the fishmonger's hst one day, ' Larks,' and I remonstrated with him about it. The man said, ' Oh, these Larks are not the singing Larks, but small ones that fly in flocks.' Is this true ? " It is, of course, not true. The Larks which sing, and the Larks which fly in flocks, and the Larks which are caged in Seven Dials, and the Larks which are eaten in Belgravia and Brighton are one and the same species, the Sky-Lark. THE HARVEST OF THE SEA. AUusion was made in the last number of Bird Notes and News to the evidence of the Fishmongers' Company as to the " prac- tically illimitable " supply of fish, Gulls notwithstanding. The Rev. J. G. Tuck now sends the report of a record haul of herrings at Yarmouth, a boat coming into harbour with ,over one hundred thousand fish in her hold and a " wall of herrings sixty feet long on deck." The skipper said he had never before seen sucli a quantity in the sea. Yet there are thousands of Gulls on the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk. BIRD FRIENDS, The cold days that have already hinted at approaching winter remind bird-lovers that a supply of bird-food in hard times is a ready means of bird-preservation and of paying in some small measure for the good work and songs of summer. A Member of the Society who has been remarkably successful in taming birds by this means, writes : " I think the Society would do well to get all schools to go in for Wild Bird feeding. Few people, young or old, can resist the fascination when once they find the birds getting to know them. A friend of mins has an aviary, and he strongly advised me to start I ne. However, he was here one day, and when he saw my tame wild birds he lost all interest in his captives, and said he would give me the whole structure, birds as well, if he could only have the wild birds coming to his garden and window .... What is wanted, I think, is to make jjeople under- stand that they can make personal pets of wild birds without caging them." This bird-lover does not stop at crumbs carelessly bestowed. He has a large " shelter " outside his window in which to place food, which in general consists of bread and fat meat minced, then mixed with hemp, maw and millet seed, and heated in a mass. But soft-bills rejoice in an occasional treat of meal-worms. One Thrush, he writes, knows the meal-worm canister well, and as soon as it appears comes to within three or four feet of the window oj)ening and shutting its beak in anticipation. He feeds them also in spring and summer when there are little families to provide for, and feels that he has established a personal understanding on both sides, the birds discriminating between the members of his small home-circle and all outsiders. THE OUT-DOOR AVIARY. Tlie following quotation from the writer of a series of excellent articles " Concerning Birds " in Life and Work (the Church of Scotland Magazine) is of interest : " I have seen a wonderful little estate in the midlands of England, where the Kestrel, the Stock- dove, the Tree-Sparrow, the two Flycatchers, four kinds of Tits, many Starlings, Robins, and a Treecreeper nested in the boxes provided. Here is such an easy, pleasant, and cheap way of providing oneself with an open-air aviary that I wonder every country bird-lover does not adoiDt it. How much nobler it is to be protector of wild birds than to be their gaoler, to have them for your friends rather than your jjrisoners. Let some of the hollies in your garden grow unpruned that the members of the Thrush tribe may come to feed on the berries in winter ; let some of your sun- flowers go to seed ; let hips and haws remain on j^our hedges. . . It really pays to have plenty of birds about your garden. I speak of what I myself have abimdantly proved." Nesting Boxes to assist in forming the "Oat-door Aviary" can be had from the R.S.P.B., who supply both Enghsh and German makes. BIRDS AND HOLLY BERRIES. A correspondent writes from Cornwall : " This afternoon (November 9th) when on the river I saw numbers of Thrushes, Blackbirds, and Woodpigeons feasting on the glittering holly berries on the river-bank. . . . Certainly it was plain enough to-day that the birds are thankful for them, for the trees were alive with birds, devouring the Ijerries and flying in and out in the sunlight. The boatman (a native of the place) laughs at the idea as ridiculous that birds do not eat holly-berries ; he has seen them do it ' livmdreds and hundreds of times.' ... ' Yes,' he said, ' cartloads of berried holly goes up from here for the London Christnaas market.' " BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 45 Thought flies from tliis picture of birds and sunshine and scarlet berries to that pathetic one drawn by Mr. Hudson in The Land's End, of starving little birds hiding in the hedges from the bitter cold until they drop from their perches to die. " Not one of them is forgotten before God," ue are pleased to believe. But they are not always remembered by the Christmas decorators. UcT Bird and Tree (Arbor) Day. UcT INTERIM WORK IN THE SCHOOLS. Several lines of work distinct from the customary Bird and Tree watching were suggested to schools in order to maintain interest in Nature Study during the Ijlank season necessarily'' occurring between the dates of the 1909 and the 1910-11 Challenge Shield Competitions. In one class — a Nature Study Calendar com- piled by an Elementary School — the First Prize is awarded to Henley-in-Arden Council School for a long series of records by the scholars, presented with admnable neatness. It extends from January 1st to June 30th, 1910, and includes three htmdred and ninety-nine observations out of a total of six lumdred and twenty-seven contributed by the children. The impression conveyed is that Henley is hajipy m possessing a varied and charming bird- life, and that its young folk are being excellently taught to know and observe the various species. The Second Prize goes to Mogerhanger School, Bedfordshu'e, which sends in a "diary compiled by the senior division, containmg good notes on Birds and plants ; and also a series of capital records by the junior division, S2Jecially commend- able for the number of wild flowers noticed and identified. The knowledge of plants and butterflies shows that the children have a good all-rovmd acquaintance with the wild life of the countryside. In the other class — Notes on the Songs and Call- notes of Birds — the most careful and extensive series of observations come from Princes Risborough C.E. School, Buckinghamshire. This is a far more difficult study than the previous one, and a special jirize is awarded to the School. Mogerhanger School also wins commendation for a number of naive little rhymes with bu'ds for their subjects. BIRD AND TREE FESTIVALS. Late, but better late than never, the Frome National School celeVjrateil on October 27th the \vuuiing of the Somerset Challenge Shield for 1909-10. The Rev. Prebendary Randolph pre- sided o\c'r a crowded inestiug in the Schoolroom, and the prizes were presented by the Duchess of Somer.set, who gave an interesting address and also superintended the planting in the school ground of two young lime-trees, given by the Marquess of Bath. Hearty congratulations were offered to the Head Master, and a presentation was made to the master who trams the boys in Nature Study. Among those present were Lady Ernest St. Maur, the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, and Admiral Arbuthnot. Other festivals have likewise been held to cele- brate 1909 successes and to form an inspiring '"send-off" for the Competition of 1910-11. Among them was an excellent entertainment on November 19th at the Holme School, Headley, which took the Second Prize in Hampshire. The laiu-els won in the Norfolk Competition (arranged by the County Education Committee) in 1910 were awarded to the victors at meetings held at Norwich and King's Lynn on December 1st and 2nd. The R.S.P.B. Challenge Shield was won by Hingham Boys' School ; Certificates went to thirty-eight schools, and Montagu Sharpe Medals to forty -six individual competitors. The prizes were distributed by Mrs. Henry Birkbeck and Mrs. Philip Gurney respectively ; the speakers included the Lord Mayor of Norwich (Mr. Eustace Gurney), Mr. H. Lee Warner, and the Re\-. M. C. H. Bird, and a lecture on •' The Birds About Us " was given by MLss E. L. Turner. No fewer than 141 schools took part in the work this year. BIRD DAY IN AUSTRALIA. Miss Ware, late Hon. Sec. of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, writes : " Arbor Day in our State Schools will in future be known as Arbor and Bu"d Day. This means that thousands of cliildren in our Commonwealth will be taught to protect and love birds. The work I planned to do among children for our Society will therefore be done on perhaps ampler lines." 46 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. In the Children's Hour for July, 1910, Mr. A. G. Edquist, of the High School, Adelaide, gives an account of the School Bu'd Protection Clubs in the State. Teachers are asked to call a meeting of all children in the school who wish to protect birds to appoint a smart boy as secretary. The promise is, ''I will observe our native birds and do all that J can to jirotect them from destruction." Mr. Edquist writes : — • " I am sure there is not an Australian boy jjroud of his native land and its wonderful birds, who would ever be guilty, or even allow another to be guilty, of wiKully miu'dering his feathered com- panions of the Bush. Would an AustraUan boy allow a stranger from some foreign country to trap and kill our lovely bird-songsters ? I think not. The heart of such a boy would swell with indigna- tion, and his one desii-e would be to open the cages, set the birds free, and ijunish the bu'd-destroyer. Can we not do something to prevent the wholesale and useless destruction of the feathered tribe ? Single-handed we can do little, but if we remember the motto " Unity is strength " and band our- selves together into one great Bird-protecting Club we can do a great deal." Bu-d and Tree Cadets will like to know that they have thvis a strong body of fellow workers in the great Commonwealth of Australia. In Victoria, moreover. Bird Day is to be annually celebrated in the State Schools. This year the date selected was October 29th, wlien birds formed the subject of all lessons and readings and songs, and the children were invited to jom the Gould League of Bii'd Lovers. A BIRD AND TREE DAY FOR FRANCE. The Bulletin of the Societe Nationale d'Acclima- tation de France, for September, 1910, contains a paper by Monsieur P. Amadee Pichot on the Encouragement of the Study of Natural History in the Primary Schools, a subject which has been unanimously aj^proved by the Society, who are now seeking the best means for carrying out the recom- mendation. M. Pichot explains fully the working of the Bird and Tree scheme by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, adding : — ' Les instituteurs se louent beaucoup des resultants de ces concours ; les enfants s'y interes- sent et s'y appliquent, leurs facultes intellectuelles s'y develoiDpent et s'y affinent, et tout les branches de leiu" instruction s'en ressentent. lis apprenent surtout a aimer les choses de la Nature et prennent Oiseaux et Plantes sous levir protection." Reviewing the work done in a similar direction in France by School Forestry Societies instituted by the Toixring Club, with their Arbor Day, and by the Societe Nationale d' Aviculture, M. Pichot urges that the Societe d'Acclimatation should give a still stronger impulse to the study of natural history. A circular-letter has accordingly been addressed to the teachers of primary schools, proposing the award of prizes and medals for essays on the animals and plants of the locality, written from personal observation and not from books or manuals. The children are to study an animal, a bird, or a plant, and the six best essays from each school, with the note-books, are to be sent to the Society, who will adjudge the awards. It is proposed also to start a spacial fund to meet expenses, and to provide honorariums for the teachers and savings- bank books for the reward of pre-eminently good work. It is a gratifying compliment to the R.S.P.B. that its Bird a,nd Tree scheme should thus servo as a model for so important a project among Bird- Protectors across the Channel. LANTERN ENTERTAINMENTS. What may be called the social side of work for the birds is very apt to be overlooked. Strenuous workers are so deeply concerned in the crusade against the brutality and illegality which characterize alike the war of cupidity on rare species and the war of stupidity on the commoner ones, that there is danger of losmg sight of the necessity for educating and appealing to the public by persuasive methods. No cause lends itself more readily than that of Bird Protection to the winning of jjopular sympathy, and one of the best means to this end is the use of lantern and slides. Everything nowadays is made plain to the mind of the public by lantern lectures ; public amusement is centred in the lantern picture. It is of the first imjiortance that neither lecture nor picture should be neglected by bird-lovers. The lecture can be either popular or scientific, can deal with very varied branches of the subject, can suit either the audience of naturalists or the audience of schoolchildren. Examples of several varieties are lent by the R.S.P.B., and several others are in preparation. Local Secretaries and other ectm-ers have done excellent work, but many niore friends of the cause might make the winter season of BIRD NOTES AND NEWS 47 literary society or field-club or parish gathering, the vehicle for an illustrated talk about Birds. Workers who are too modest to consider themselves qualified for this would find the j)reparation an excellent incentive to study of tlie question, and in this way would make them- selves at once more competent and more zealous in the work. For the lighter occasion of amusement and instruction there remains the Lantern Entertain- ment, a vein much less worked in connexion with Bii'd Protection than it might and should be. Few jjeoijle but are called upon to organize or assist in entertainments for winter evenings, and no difficulty need be met in arranging a programme of music, with or without readings, that will delight hearers of any class, while almost insensibly, but often most effectually, converting them to Bird Protection. The Society has been for some time past forming a collection of suitable songs and part-songs, and will be glad of additions or sug- gestions from musical friends. These are lent, together with slides, for the use of vocalists ; readings and recitations will hkewise be provided. Some of these are already largely utilized for Bird and Tree entertainments. Amateur photographers could give welcome assistance by lending good clear prints that would make suitable slides for illustration of song or reading. Added interest would attach to the snap-shotting of pretty subjects or pretty sitters, or of the bu'd-life which is now so favourite a subject, if the pictures wore definitely selected or grouped or utilized for this purpose. Many members of the R.S.P.B. will remember the introduction of the Lantern-song at one of the Society's meetings some years ago, when Madame Antoinette Sterling and other artists sang such songs as Schubert's " The Quail," A. S. Gatty's " One Morning, oh so Early," Claribel's " Robin Redbreast," Moir's " A Lark's Flight," and Cowen's " Swallows." An admirable example of the popular entertainment was given at Romsey Town Hall on November 2nd, Mrs. Suckling's long years of work and influence having enabled the little Hampshire town to give a lead in this matter. The organizers had the advantage of co-operation from a good orchestral society and an excellently trained choir of children from a private school. Most places, however, could in these days furnish amateur instrumentalists and a school chorus ; nor are capable soloists often wanting. The words of each song were thrown on the sheet during the musical prelude, so that no one should miss their purport, and every verso was illustrated by one or more pictures. Effective recitations, also fully illustrated, varied the programme. In many cases it wovild be easy and desirable to introduce a brief lecture or a short account of the Society's work and objects. Such entertainments can bo organized without any great difficulty or outlay, and should be a very attractive and profitable means of popularizing Bird Protection and helpmg the funds for the serious and urgent work of the Society. BOOKS RECEIVED. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, edited by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Vol. 26 (London : Witherby & Co., (Is. net.) Report on the Immigrations of Summer Residents in the spring of 1909 ; also Notes on the migratory movements and records received from Lighthouses and Light - vessels dm-ing the autumn of 1908. Dr. N. F. Ticehurst is now secretary of the B.O.L^. Migration Committee. Ornithological Notes from a South London Suburb, 1874-1909. By F. D. Power, M.R.C.S. (London : H. J. Glaisher, 3s. 6d. net.) A model local record, having moi-e than local value not only on account of the careful notes on past and present suburban species, but also for the interesting observations on migration, with accompanying chart. Mr. Power's suburb is Brixton, less of a desert 25 years ago than now, but he includes Dulwich and Sydenham. The decreasing species afford melancholy reading to the bird-lover; commons and their lakes are being ruined for bird-life by golfing and boating. Tlie resident species are 29 ; summer visitors, 37, of which only 13 now nest ; but occasional and accidental species are put at 40. The Young People's Nature-Study Book. The Young People's Microscope Book. In Natures Nursery. By the Rev. S. N. Sedgwick (London : Methodist Publishing House, 3s. 6d. each) Animals' Friend ; Animal World ; Animals' Guardian ; Selborne Magazine ; Healthward Ho ! ; Game Laws for 1910 (L'.S. Department of Agricul- ture) ; Revue Francaise d'Ornithologie ; Joiu-nal of the Board of Agriculture ; Bulletin de la Societat Protectora dels Animals y de les Plantes de Catalunya ; etc. 48 BIRD NOTE"^ AND NEWS. IN THE COURTS. Cruelty to a Sea-Gull. — At Filey, on September 30th, Joshua Fountain, of Foords Hotel, Filey, said to be well known as a " naturalist " and dealer in tamed Sea-gulls and other birds, was charged with cruelty to a captive Gull. It was stated that the beach was frequently strewn with wounded l)irds, shot at and then left to die by shore-gunners ; and one of these wounded birds was brought to defendant by a boy. Two days later it was seen , ^ BIRD NOTES pind NEWS. Ilssnefi (IJuartcrlii bji tbe lloiial ^ocictg for tise protection of girDs. Vol. IV.— No. 5.] London : 23, Quken Anne's Gate, S.W. [MABCH 25, 1911. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— Y. HE early history of the Society for the Protection of Birds, was briefly told in the first number of Bird Notes and News (April, 1903) ; but as this sketch of the Bird Protection movement has now reached the year 1889, something must be said of the beginnings of the Society which was founded in that year. The general position of the movement has been shown. The destruction of British sea-birds for millinery had been checked by the Sea-Birds Act of 1868 ; and a close- time had been given to all species of birds (in intention at least) by the Acts of 1880-1. Meantime the trade in foreign birds Avas growing, and these were being killed in enormous numbers for their j^lumage. A glance at the jjages of any fashion-paper for 1886-7, shows how perpetually whole birds appeared as trimming on the ugly httle hats of the period. With the fashion had grown the protest against it on the part of ornithologists and other thinking persons ; and efforts were being made to form societies and leagues to discountenance the barbarous trade. In February, 1889, Mrs. Robert W. Wilhamson, of Didsbury, Manchester, started a " Society for the Protection of Birds " with this object. It began quietly and unobtru- sively : persuasion among friends and acquaintances, letters to newspapers urging the need for such a protest and inviting co-operation, were the methods used. But the seed fell on prepared ground — it was watched and watered by a ^Aorker A\hose heart was in her work ; and the young plant's rapid growth was a surprise, a deUght, and no light responsibility. Letters of hearty ap- proval and sympathy began to reach Mrs. Wilhamson from many parts of England and Wales ; the labour of attending to them seemed likely soon to pass beyond the powers of one person ; and in two years' time its foundress felt that the young Society should have its centre in the capital city of the kingdom, since there seemed to be a distinct place for it among the civilizing, conserving, and reforming agencies of the age. Accord- ingly, in May, 1891, Mrs. Wilhamson trans- ferred the Hon. Secretaryship to Miss Hannah Poland, a London resident, who had interested herself in the movement. In the following month the Duchess of Portland gave the association the honour and prestige of her name as President. About the same time Miss Poland also happily obtained the co-operation of Mrs. Edward Philhps, who, after man}^ j^ears of \Aork as President of the Tunbridge Wells S.P.C.A., had removed to CroA'don, and who forthwith became the second mother of the little Society. How much it owes to her zeal and wisdom onh' its older workers know. Miss C. V. Hall became Hon. Treasurer, and in October, 1891, the first Report was issued — a very modest affair, A\hose balance-sheet (receipts £7 13s. 8d. and expenditure £6 3s. 11 id.) raised some good-natured laughter. The number of "members" was then 1,200. " It will be seen," said the report : — " That no subscription is asked from ordinary- members, and at starting, no payment was required for cards of membership. Donations, at one time 50 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. declined, have since been gratefully accepted to meet the growing expenses of the Society, for report, postage of letters, and leaflets. " At first the Society was composed of women only, but several gentlemen have shown their approval of the object of the Society by joining it as members, or by authorizing the mention of their names as earnest sympathizers. ... In evidence that the leading ornithologists and bird-lovers in England strongly condemn the pernicious fashion which is causing the wholesale destruction of several species of useful and beautiful birds, it must suffice to quote, with their full sanction, the names of Lord Lilford, the President of the British Ornithologists' Union ; Professor Newton, of Magdelene College, Cambridge; Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., Secretary to the Zoological Society ; the Rev. Canon H, B. Tristram (Durham); Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, of the British Museum; Stacy Marks, R.A., the Hon. Auberon Herbert, and the Rev. F. O. Morris, of Nunburnholme. To these names were soon added those of the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, Mrs. Brightwen, Sir EdAvard Grey, Sir Herbert Maxwell, the Bishop of Durham (Dr. Lightfoot), the Head- master of Harrow (now Bishop Welldon), and Mr. W. H. Hudson. Professor Newton gave the Society its first guinea, the Rev. A. L. Hussey the second ; and in 1892 a donation of £10 from Mr. Harvie-Brown enabled a banking account to be opened. By the end of 1892 there were over 5,000 " members," two pamphlets and three leaflets had been issued, and Punch had come out on the side of the persecuted Herons with its cartoon of the " osprey "- decked " Harpy " of fashion. Towards the close of this year Miss Poland resigned the Hon. Secretaryship to Mrs. Frank E. Lemon, and shortly afterwards the Society was first organized by the forma- tion of a Committee, whose meetings were held by invitation at the offices of the R.S.P.C.A., in Jermyn Street, for the next five years. The Society was now fairly established, and able to turn its attention to improved legislation for the Protection of Birds. While dealing, however, with the inner history of the Society, it may be added that the quahfying subscription of an " Associate " was placed at one shilling by the constitution of 1893, in order that all classes might be asked to join the ranks of subscribers ; in 1896 an appeal for guinea subscriptions from " Fellows " was issued ; and the present constitution of Fellows, Members and Associates was fixed by the Royal Charter granted to the Society by King Edward VII. in 1904. By this Charter a Council of twenty-four members was authorized. The present Chairman, Mr. Montagu Sharpe, first took office in 1895 ; Sir George Meason succeeded Miss Hall as Hon. Treasurer in the same year, and was followed by Mr. Sydney Buxton, M.P., in 1901 ; Mr. Frank E. Lemon took over the duties of Hon. Secretary in 1904, (To be continued.) usr The PIume-'TrAcle. UcT *' Feathers and Facts," the new pamphlet issued by the Royal Society for the Protection oE Birds, is intended not only as a reply to statements contained in " The Feather Trade : the Case for the Defence," issued by the plume- trade, but as a summarised history of the movement for the protection of birds killed for the millinery market. It will, therefore. prove a useful handbook for members of the Socitey and for the many writers and speakers who apply for facts concerning the various phases of the question. The trade defence that the plumes are " artificial," and the trade defence that the plumes are " picked up," are dealt with ; and Mr. Walter Good- felloAv, the well-known ornithologist and BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 61 explorer, speaks with an authority no one can dispute, of the Birds-of-Paradise of New Guinea. With regard to the Birds-of-Paradise, it is instructive to know that the opium traffic goes hand-in-hand with the slaughter of bird-life ; the drug being introduced by the hunters in payment for skins, with the result that many of the unfortunate natives, thus made acquainted with the " blessings " of civilization, are betrayed into the clutches of the opium habit. In " The Feather Trade " defence, httle is said of the quantities of bird-skins and A\'ings which come into the market, but very much of the Egrets of Venezuela and their supposititious " moulted plumes." The effect to be conveyed to the reader's mind is that the feather-trade is principally a matter of " ospreys," that practicall}'^ all " ospreys " come from Venezuela, that throughout Vene- zuela, and indeed all over South America, the Egret is protected " by law and custom " ; that the bu'ds dwell in a species of game- preserve known as a "garcero" or in luxurious first-class and second-class " dormitories," guarded by regulations compared with M'hich English County Council Orders are feeble. It needs, perhaps, a traveller who knows something of South America to appreciate fully the humour of such a preposterous description. An analysis of facts, disentangled from their settmg, changes the picture very con- siderably, even in the eyes of those who cannot ^\•hoUy reahse the difference between closely-populated, long-cultivated, and Avell- policed httle England, and the vast jungles and swamps of tropical America, where laws are few and means of enforcing them in the " back behind," away from the small towns and settlements, are nil. The assertion of the trade that Egrets are protected over trackless miles of South America, and that the shooting of Egrets is an indictable offence " in Venezuela " — with the inference that all feathers from thence must therefore be " moulted " plumes — resolves itself into this small nucleus : In one small sub-state or district of Venezuela a decree was issued by the governor last year forbidding the shooting of the birds in consequence of the destruction carried on by plume-hunters. That sub-state consists of a single town, San Fernando de Apure, and of sparsely-inhabited, half-unexplored hinterland. " You may guess something of the character of the country," says Mr. Albert Pam, a member of the Council of the Zoological Society, who knows Venezuela from the experience both of the traveller and the man of business, " when I tell you that a man whom I sent from Caracas to San Fernando w^as twenty-three days on the way, travelling overland." (The distance is about two hundred miles as the crow flies, or the distance between London and Scarborough.) " Who is to enforce laws in a district like that ? This book on ' The Feather Trade ' talks about ' costly Government machinery ' : there is no such thing. The government of the place is not a power with officials and a police force behind it, like, let us say, the Essex County Council. It consists of a governor living in the town, who has no executive to carry out laws in bog and jungle. He will make decrees if he is asked to do so, but if he goes on making decrees till he is black in the face, there will be no one to enforce them in the kmd of land that is worked by the plume-hunter. " No doubt am' feathers picked up are made the best of, but they are relegated to the packets of dirty and inferior plumes which fetch a very different price from that given for the better-class ' osprej's ' — those obtained by shooting the birds in the nesting- time. ^Moreover, the feathers are shed singly 52 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. not in tufts, and could be picked up only here and there over wide intervals of space, sometimes in swampy water, sometimes on bog, which a man cannot walk upon without sinking. A httle arithmetic will show how many of such separate feathers would have to be gathered in this laborious fashion to amount to a single kilogramme." The quantity exported from Venezuela per annum would require, on the accepted computation, some two-and-a-haK millions of the heavier feathers, and a proportionately larger number of the small ones. Mr. Percy Alden, M.P., again brought in, on February 22nd, a Bill to prohibit the sale, hire, or exchange of the plumage and skins of birds named in a schedule to the Bill. The provisions of the measure are practically the same as those contained in the Bill introduced by Mr, Alden last year, with some additions to the Hst in the schedule. The opposition was led by Mr. Carlile (St. Albans). The first reading was carried by 326 to 48, but the second reading of the Bill now stands deferred till April 10th. Among the supporters of the Bill were Mr. Asquith, Mr. Birrell, and Mr. John Burns. ucT ueT Economic Ornithology, ucr ^sr BULBS AND BIRDS. • Some correspondence in Gardening Illus- trated, concerning the attacks of Sparrows on crocuses and other flowers, brought an interesting letter from " Alauda " (February 11th, 1911). A taste for spring flowers appears to be a quite recent addition to the sins of the House-sparrow, and, on occasion, of one or two other birds ; and it has puzzled gardeners to know whether the moisture in the flowers, the flavour of pollen and pistil, the tender vegetable food at a time when green food is scarce, or sheer villainy on the part of the birds, is the cause of the attacks. Some gardens do not suffer at all ; in others polyanthuses, as well as crocuses, are pulled to pieces ; and in every case the yellow flowers are the victims. " Alauda " writes : 'First as to crocuses and bii'ds. I speak with some authority about these, as I have four very large grass glades filled with them. One, in which the flowers almost tovich, is 70 feet by 30 feet, be- sides three large beds imderplanted with them and quantities in the borders. I have never lost a bulb of mauve, white or jjiirple flowers through birds, but the Sparrow cannot resist the yellow ones. These are always protected as soon as the colour begins to show, by having some slight sticks jjut amongst them, and webbed over with ' Patent Webber.' Birds detest the soft web sticking to their feathers, and it is a far more effective way than using black cotton. " I have now a glorious patch in full bloom of 200 Crocus Imperati. In the shrubbery just behind it, cocoanuts, beef-bones, nesting-boxes and one of Baron Berlepsch's food-bells are hanging up, and the place is alive with every sort of bird, yet not a bloom of the crocus is disturbed. " Every sort of bird is catered for in my garden. .... and the little extra trouble to use the syringe and bud protection, and net your fruit in the summer (doing this all in good tinie, and not after damage has been done) is more than amply repaid by the destruction going on all the year round of wire- worms, slugs and other insect-pests by the bii'ds. " The practical German, whose fruit-crops are very highly valued as helping to pay the rent, killed off every bird he could find, with the result that the fruit was uneatable — a mass of insect-eaten mess — and only fit for pulping and exi^ort to England (presumably as a foundation for cheap jam). Now the German is doing all he can to get ui^ the stock of birds again. Boys ai-e heavily fined for bird-nest- ing ; nesting-boxes are hung up in orchards ; and it is almost hopeless to keep a cat, the peasants told me, as the fruit-tree inspectors (which is a profession in Germany) have them all sliot. " To sum up, in the words of my own gardener : ' Give me plenty of netting for summer, a syringe, bud-protecting liquid and the patent webber, and tlie more birds the better, except Sparrows. I was brought up in gardens where they were destroyed, but I've proved here that they do far more good than harm.' " BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 53 A PLEA FOR THE OWL. Readers of Bird Notes and News who have preserved the Owl Map given in the Winter Number, are asked to note that the following counties must be added to the list of those in which Owls are protected all the year by County Council Orders : Mon- mouthshire, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire, and Westmoreland. The action taken in the two last-named counties is a direct result of the letter on the subject written to the Times, on the appearance of this map, by Canon Rawnsley. The Journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health for February contained " A Plea for the Owl," written by Captain T. M. J. Tailby, a member of the Council of the R.S.P.B., for the purpose of enhsting the support of the medical profession in the preservation of Owls as destroyers of vermin and consequently, guarding against plague. After quoting numerous authorities as to the utility of the Owl in this respect, Captain Tailby adds : It is greatly to be regretted that systematic disregard of this law goes on in very many parts o the kingdom, with the result that serious and active assistance is given to the propagation of rats and mice. Farmers are very much alive to this fact, and bitter complaints are made by farmers of the ruthless and imbecile destruction of their friends the Owls. In some cases ^ shooting-men are themselves to blame in not keeping adequate control over their keepers (in which respect syndicates are among the worst offenders) ; but more frequently the keepers wilfidly and persistently di.sobey the orders of their masters that owls and kestrels are to be spared. The brutal i)olo-trap, although made illegal by a special Act of Parliament in 1004, Ls by no means extinct ; many keepers use them still where they think that they will not be seen {e.g., in secluded clearings in woods, and on lonely moors), and by detecting and reporting these broaches of the law any member of the jjublic can give the most valuable assistance. The pole-trap is the most doadlj', as well as the most disgustingly cruel, of ail the owl's enemies, owing to the bird's halnt of perching on stumps as a vantage ground from which to see its prey. The Society's Inspector reports (March 1911) the continued existence of Pole-Traps in Wales, and it is hoped that with respect to this illegal practice, some convictions may be secured. On the occasion of the Guildhall meeting to consider the question of Rats and the Plague, held on February 6th, a letter was sent to the Lord Mayor by the R.S.P.B., calling attention to the useful work of Owls in the destruction of rats and mice. A resolution was carried asking for the im- mediate appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire into the increase of vermin ; the question of what creatures are or are not harmful to cnan and his industries ; the safety and efficiency of viruses and other means advocated for the destruction of vermin. The Roydl Society for the Protection of Birds. ANNUAL MEETING. The Annual Meeting of the Society was held on March 7th, at the Westminster Palace Hotel, S.W., and was largely attended. The President (the Duchess of Portland) having telegraphed her regret at inability to fulfil her engagement, the chair was taken by JuHa Marchioness of Tweeddale, Mho presented the silver and bronze medals, certificates, and books won by the successful competitors in the Public-School Competition, 1910. The list of winners appeared in the last number of Bird Notes a^b News. Among the speakers were the Rev, the Hon. Edward Lyttelton, Mr. Walter Goodfellow, Mr. J. C. Tregarthen, Sir John Cockburn and Mr. Montagu Sharpe (Chairman of Council). A full report of the proceedings is included in the Society's Annual Report. 54 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. COUNCIL MEETING. The Council met at the Middlesex Cluildhall Westminster, on January 27th, 1911, when there were present : Mr. Montagu Sharpe (in the Chair), Mr. Ernest Bell, Miss Chfton, Dr. Drewitt, the Hon. Mrs. Drewitt, Miss Hall, Hon. Mrs. Henniker, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Hastings Lees, Mr. F. E. Lemon (Hon. Secretary), Mrs. Lemon, Mrs. Fuller-Maitland, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, Miss Pollock, and the Secretary (Miss Gardiner). The Hon. Secretary's Report stated that lectures had been given at Highwood (Drawing-room Meeting) and Hursley, Hants, by the Rev. J. E. Kelsall ; Hampstead Garden Suburb, by Mr. Hastings Lees ; Fifeshire, by Miss Rintoul ; West Kirby and elsewhere, Mr. Lewis Jones. Six Bird Protection Orders had been issued. The catalogue of a sale of Eggs at Stevens' Sale- rooms, on January 31st, included the egg of a White-tailed Eagle, said to have been taken in Shetland in May, 1909. As the eggs of this bird are protected by law, and by the Society's Watchers, it was agreed that a protest be lodged against the sale. (In reply it was stated by Mr. Stevens that the date given was a mistake, the egg having been taken before the Order was made.) The Finance and General Purposes Committee reported that Mrs. Yorke Smith had consented to act as H.L.S. for Sidmouth ; Mr. F. D. Power, M.R.C.S., for Brixton and Dulwich ; and Miss Charters, in succession to Miss Marston, resigned, for Leicester. The following new Fellows were elected : — Mrs. George Browne (London, N.W. ), W. Comyns Clifton (Romford), Mrs. Pierse-Duncombe (Holling- ton Park, St. Leonards-on-Sea); Professor Kennedy J. P. Orton (Bangor), Mrs. Ralj^h Price (London, W. ) The following were elected Members : — Miss Violet Bagshaw (Birkenshaw), Edward C. Casey (Petersfield), F. C. Gardiner (Glasgow), Eustace Illingworth (Keighley), Miss Jackson (Patrieroft, Manchester), H. A. Mason, M.D. Duffield), Mi.« C. H. Rawlins (Ritgeley), Miss Sharp (Southsea), Colonel Spottiswoode (Southsea), Mrs. C. E. Sykes (Leominster), Miss Taylor (Hum- shaugh), Miss Primrose Wethered (Esher), Mrs. Arnold White (Farnham Common), Mrs. Wood (Hvnnshaxigh), Rev. G. Edward Yoimg (London, W.) Life Member : The Lady Evelyn Mason (Witney). The Watchers Committee reported on arrangements made for Watching during the spring of 1911, and on special work to be undertaken by the Society's Inspectors in the protection of rare birds , and in the m.atter of bird-catching and bird-shops. Attention was also called to the agitation promoted in certain sea-coast places for the removal of Gulls from the protection of the Acts, and to the consumption of Quail during close- time. General Business. — Mrs. R. Fuller- Maitland was elected a Member of Council. The Annual Report, statements of Accounts, and arrangements for Annual Meeting were approved. Among other matters discussed Avere the Importation of Plumage Prohibition Bill, and the reply to the plume-trade's recently published statements in defence of the traffic ; and also the injury done by birds and by insects to fruit and other crops, and the work of Sparrow Clubs. A meeting of the Pubhcation Committee was held at 23, Queen Anne's Gate, on February 17th. OBITUARY. In the death, on Feb. 8th, 1911, of Earl Cawdor, who was a Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Society has lost a supporter who was keenly interested in the preservation of wild birds, and to whom is due much of the success of efforts made to protect the surviving Kites of Great Britain. On several occasions it was hoped that Lord Cawdor would take the Chair at an Annual Meeting, but ill- health and other circumstances prevented him from doing so. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 55 The late Sir Charles Dilke was among the early friends of the Society, expressing warm approval of its work and sympathy with its objects, although never officially con- nected with its organization. The cause of animals and birds in Scotland has to deplore the death of the Rev. John Ferguson, B.D., of Aberdalgie, who spent himself untiringly in its promotion. As Hon. Sec. for Perthshire for the Scottish P.C.A., he journeyed over a wide district to address the schools, and on these occasions as well as in his pulpit utterances, he did not fail to plead for the birds and to commend the work of the R.S.P.B., of which he was a Member. Though Uving for thirty years in a quiet rural parish, Mr. Ferguson was a travelled and scholarly man, who kept abreast of modern thought without neglect of the old learning. PUBLIC-SCHOOL COMPETITION. Silver and Bronze medals. Certificates and books are again offered by the Society for Essays written by pubhc-school boys. The alternative subjects this year are — (a) Records of personal observations made during the year on one species of bird, to which descriptive matter, otherwise acquired, may be added ; (b) Description of a holiday with the birds, to include records of any birds seen during the spring vacation. Full par- ticulars of the Competition may be obtained from the Offices of the R.S.P.B., 23, Queen Anne's Gate. THE PROTECTION OF CROPS. The Council of the R.S.P.B., being fully alive to the difficulties of farmers and gardeners in protecting their crops, intend offering a substantial award for the best Essay on the most practical, economical, and inexpensive methods of guarding fruit, vegetables, flowers, and agricultural crops, other than that of destroying birds. By this means the Council hope to elicit many practical suggestions, which they will embody in a pamphlet for distribu- tion among agricultural and gardening associations, and other bodies interested in the question. Further particulars will be ready shortl3^ BIRD AND TREE COMPETITION As the time for entering in the Bird and Tree Competitions (Elementary' Schools), 1911, has been changed, and the change has not been noted by all schools, entries will for this year be admitted during April. All who are interested in the teaching of children, especially in the villages, are asked to make the scheme known in their locaHty, as there is an Open Class for schools in any county. Entry-foi-ms and all particulars may be had from the Secretary of the Society. The Northamptonshire Education Com- mittee, at their meetmg on January 25th, decided to send out copies of the best Essays sent in last year to ever}' school in the county, in order to encourage them to join in the Competition. The Chairman (Mr. Allebone) who gave the Challenge Shield, said that the scheme had proved of great interest, and should be of much use to the children. PUBLIC SCHOOL ESSAYS. The following extracts are taken from essays sent in from the Public Schools, in competition for the Silver Medal and other awards offered by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They are indicative of the careful first-hand observation which shows the true naturaUst. As usual, nests and eggs claim foremost attention in these essays, and other habits and characteristics of the birds do not receive their due ; but 56 BIBD NOTES AND NEWS. the originality shown in the following notes on the nesting-period gained first and second places for the papers from which they are taken : THE LAPWING'S NEST. " Any sort of field seems to suit the bird, though, perhaps, its favourites are arable land and low, marshy meadows. But it also nests in heather, and I have once found a nest in growing corn about a foot high. In nesting, Plover seem to be to a certain extent gregarious, as I have found nests containing eggs as close together as six yards, and several nests may generally be found in a field where there is one. This is probably as much due to the suj^eriority of certain fields for nesting as to love of one another's company. In any particular field the nest may be almost anywhere, though as a rule the extreme edge is avoided, but by no means always. In a field ploughed in furrows the nest is placed on the crown of a furrow ; in a grass meadow a patch of horse-dung, which has lain some time and spread, is chosen if possible, or, more rarely, a flattened molehill. This is in order to make the best possible use of the protective colouring of the eggs. In a field which has a path leading into it by a stile or gap the Plover will jirobably place its first nest in no particular chosen spot ; but if this nest is taken, the second, or at any rate the third nest will probably be so placed as to command the gap by which the nest-robber enters. The hen is thus able to see him coming sooner, and to run a good way from her nest before he sees her. ". . . . A Plover has many enemies — Hawks, Rooks, Magpies, foxes and men. . . . Undoubtedly, however, the worst enemy of the Plover is man ; for there is no doubt that their eggs, though perhaps over-estimated, are very good to eat. . . . The fact of the matter seems to be that every Plover is determined to rear one brood in a year, neither more nor less. If it succeeds in rearing its first brood, it lays no more eggs ; whereas if its eggs are continu- ally taken, it will continvie to lay even as late as July. In this case no decrease in the number of Plover might be caused by egg-collecting, but a man who is in the habit of collecting large numbers of Plovers' eggs yearly has assured me that a Plover first lays the full number of four eggs ; if these are taken, she lays three, then two, then one. .... It is my belief that there is no fixed rule in the matter, but that late nests generally contain an incomplete clutch of either three, two, or one. I also believe that Plover do decrease yearly, and that this is partly owing to the extensive sale of their eggs. ... I consider that it should be first made a law through all England that no one should take Plover's eggs in April, and it should be as un- possible for a poulterer to expose these eggs in April as it is for him to sell Pheasants in that month. " A Plover generally flies rovmd and round with dismal cries when its nest is threatened. This is not always the case, however, for the sitting-hen will often fly sometime straight from its nest withoiit running, and sHp away to a distant field without a sound. As a rule she runs for some distance before rising, and sometimes she will run from the nest and then turn and fly back over it, perhaps to give a false idea of the direction in which she has been running. Two other habits are, perhaps, worth brief notice ; firstly, sometimes the birds are ahnost savage, sweeping past the intruder's head ; and I have noticed this twice in cases where I could find no nest in spite of a long search, and once in the case of a nest with one fresh egg. Secondly, the birds will sometimes settle on the groimd and run to and fro, digging their beaks in the ground at intervals, in order, perhaps, to appear unconcerned. " The other chief habit of the bird, which adds to the difficulty of finding the eggs, is that of making a large number of sham nests. These serve several purposes. Firstly, they make it harder to find the real nest, though I do not think the birds make them with that intention. I have seen about two dozen in a field frequented by only one pair of birds. I have also seen a ploughed field with each sham nest carefully marked by a little cairn of stones, for the uninitiated often imagine that each of them will at some time contain eggs. Secondly, they serve as a look-out place, where the cock may keep watch while the hen sits. Thirdly, they are made by a display of the cock before the hen. One day I watched a cock-bird making one ; he was bowing and spinning rovmd on his breast, uttering all the time a sort of creaking noise impossible to describe. The hen was sitting on her nest about eight yards away. Fourthly, they are sometimes used to contain eggs later on. These sham nests are often elaborate affairs, sometimes with a better lining than the real one." A. E. Aldols {Silver Medal), Repton School. KESTREL AND SPARROW-HAWK. " The Kestrel usually chooses as a nesting-place a hole in a tree, generally an old poplar. It also chooses the old nest of a Wood-Pigeon, or, more commonly, that of a Magpie. The bird is very partial to its former nesting-place, and often lays in it year after year. I know of one Hawk which has laid in the same old place for the last five'years, though the eggs have been taken at least once each year. This year (1910) about the 20th of April, it had five eggs : they were taken ; on the 5th of May it had two eggs, these were also taken. Passing there about a month later, I frightened the hen off, and on climbing the tree I found five eggs in an advanced state of incubation. It hatched off these, for in a few days there were four young ones, little white balls of fluff. ... In another field one day BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 67 we found a Magpie's nest containing four eggs, and in a tree in the same hedge we found another new Magpie's nest, containing five Kestrel's eggs. " Tliere is a general belief among farmers and gamekeepers, in fact, among the public generally, that the Kestrel ought to be shot on account of a habit of taking off and destroying poultry and game. Yet in realitj' its chief food is beetles and small birds, also voles and sometimes frogs and moles. It is undoubtedly only when the Kestrel has young, that it becomes so daring as to rob Pheasant poults and hen-coops, and if these were properly looked after this would surely never be the ctuse " The Si)arrow-Hawk, like tin Kestrel, is very faithful to its old nesting locality ; but, though sometimes making use of the same nest again, it usually builds another nest in a tree in the same wood that it had chosen before. I have noticed this fact time and again, for though T found six nests of the Sparrow-Hawk this year, containing eggs, I liave always notice 1 an old nest in the same wood." J. D. Bell {Second Prize), Bedford Grammar School* UcT ucT UgT Notes. UcT UcT .XoT A NATIONAL SANCTUARY. The subject of a National Sanctuary for bird and beast, brought forward by Mr. J. C. Tregarthen at the Annual Meeting of the R.S.P.B., is one well worth consideration. If great continents like North America and smaller countries like Switzerland con- sider it well to set aside extensive areas for the preservation of indigenous animals, it is no less desirable that some corner of Great Britain should be marked out, in which all wild things Avould be absolutely safe from interference. Those who have heard Mr. Thompson Seton describe the Yellowstone Park must have been struck by his account of the strange feeling of mutual security which is enjoyed there by both man and beast ; in England there are no bears or lions to preserve, but shy, wild creatures that might become less shy, and that are doomed to disappear if no refuge is allotted them. Some coast area of Corn- wall, where seal and otter and badger, chough, and peregrine still exist, seems well suited for such a purpose ; it is also suggested that the dehghts of the New Forest and of Epping would be multiplied if sanctuary conditions obtained and unqualified protec- tion were given to all wild creatures \\ithin their limits. Such a sanctuary, on a smaller scale, might be repeated in every county l)y the setting aside of a tract of woodland where birds and other creatures could dwell unharmed . RARE BIRDS IN YORKSHIRE. An experiment is to be made at Hornsea Mere this spring in endeavouring to establish there the Bearded Tit, whose chief (almost the only) breeding- place is now the Norfolk Broads. Seeing the value set on the bird by collectors, the attempt has its dangers, but as it is under the auspices of Mr. St. Quintin, a member of the Watchers Com- mittee of the R.S.P.B., it is certain that every precaution will be taken ; and the more of the birds that can be domiciled in new quarters, the less will be their value and the greater their safety in the case of the collector. An Osprey in full plumage, a Glossy Ibis, and a Hoopoe were among the rarer birds shot in Yorkshire last year. The Great Crested Crebe, the Tufted Duck, Goldfinch and Hawfinch are increasing in the county according to the report for 1910 presented to the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. MR. LECKY AMONG THE " SENTIMENTALISTS." Bird Protectors are well accustomed to being alluded to as sentimentalists, a word that has now become almost identified with 58 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. reform and philanthropy of all kinds, so commonly is it misapplied by those who confound sentiment with sentimentality. So far as the crusade against feathered millinery is concerned, the "sentimentalists" may be well content to be numbered with Newton, Howard Saunders and Lord Lilford, Mr. Dresser, Dr. Sclater and Mr. Harvie- Brown, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Rutland and Lord Avebury, Sir Edward Grey, Sir Herbert Maxwell, the late Sir Henry Stanley, Ruskin, and Herbert Spencer. A correspondent calls to mind that the author of the " Histor}'- of Rationalism," like the author of "First Principles," is also among the " sentimentalists." In his " Map of Life," W. E. Lecky wrote : — " It is melancholy to observe how often sensitive women who object to field sjiorts, and who denoLince all experiments on living animals, will be fovmd supporting with iierfect callousness fashions that are leading to the wholesale destruction of some of the most beautiful species of birds, and are, in some cases, dei^endent upon acts of very aggravated cruelty." "OSPREYS" ON THE STAGE. The stage is so largely accejated as the model for ladies' fashions that regretful mention was made at the Society's annual meeting of a picture which appeared in one of the newspapers, of an actress at the Gaiety Theatre who was described as wearing a hat trimmed with £50 worth of " ospreys." The matter was subsequently brought to the notice of Mr. George Edwardes, and a courteous reply has been received from him, stating that he generally leaves such details to his stage-manager, " but now that his attention has been drawn to the fact, he will see that osprey plumes are not used in future." BIRDS IN THE PARK. While owners of private parks and gardens have so widely adopted the suggestion of nesting-boxes for wild birds, that the- Tits and Nuthatches of the land must be rejoicing in thousands of happy homes this spring, public authorities are slower to follow German example. There are many public parks, converted from private grounds, where the thinning-out of old trees and the general tidying-up which seems hopelessly inherent in officialdom, has left hole-building species without a retreat, and other species without cover to build in. Owls which might be tempted to remain by provision of suitable sheltered boxes, are cooped behind wire netting ; small birds are driven out because neither nesting-places nor food are left to them, and are miserably represented by a few caged prisoners. On the other hand, there are towns where the song and flight of wild birds are valued as an attraction to public gardens, and a pleasure to visitors ; among them is Buxton, in whose gardens nesting-boxes have been put up on the initiative of Alderman Hubbersty, and where, next winter, it is probable that food-bells or tables will vie with the bounty of the bath- chairmen, who entertain bird parties at their shelters. The birds of London's great park will this year miss their enthusiastic old friend and tamer. Colonel Columb. THE RETURN OF THE MIGRANTS. March 25th is the date which Nature calendars appoint for the return of the Wheatear, though the B.O.C. Bulletin tells us that one bird reached the South Foreland Lighthouse on March 8th in 1909. Ahnost as soon we begin to look, or to listen, for Chiffchaff and Willow-Wren, and during April for the full tide of the summer migra- tion. It used to be a custom to speak of species that are seen throughout the year as the faithful birds which stay to cheer our winters. Far more striking is the faithfuhiess to the old home which brings the migrants back in spring. As Mr. Wade, of the Hull BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 59 Naturalists' Society, put it in the course of a lecture on Bird-life at the recent annual meeting of the Society : " The smallest of our Warblers, the Willow- Wren, would, if a bird could speak, tell a tale of hair-breadth escapes on its spring and autumn travels that would eclipse most narratives of human daring. From Yorkshire to the Algerian oases, from the Arctic regions to South Africa, he must fly to obtain the food and warmth necessary to carry him through the winter. In Africa he basks in the sunshine, and feeds on an abundant insect-life, till, in spring, the mysterious instinct calls him to face the long joiu-ney back to the land where he was born and reared. The oasis loses its charm, and when the langour of the winter moult is over, he feels strong enough to face the terrors of the passage, with its storms, and with enemies lying in wait for him. At least 1,500 miles away the leaves are coming out in the dell where he was born, and here he arrives when the cold east winds are still whistling through the bare oak boughs. He has travelled up the Portuguese coast, over the Pyrenees, through Bordeaux and Brittany, flying by night and feeding and hiding by day ; escaping the fatal lighthouse that destroyed so many of his companions ; till he arrives at the familiar spot, and as he recognizes each tree in the wood, he breaks forth into the first song of the year, and we know that sunshine and warmth are replacing the blasts of winter, and that the gladness of spring is here." BIRD PROTECTION ORDERS. The majority of the Scottish Bird Protec- tion Orders, issued for a period of three years, expired in February, 1911, and have, with a few exceptions, been renewed with various alterations. For half-a-dozen counties. Orders have either not been apphed for or are not yet issued. It may be remembered that an effort was made to secure uniform Orders for Scotland by dividing the countrj' into north and south divisions, and issuing practi- cally the same Order for all the counties in each division. This admirable attemj^t has been, to some extent, frustrated by variations asked for by this county and the other, but the common basis prevents the divergencies from becoming as complicated and as confusing as those of Enghsh counties. The best feature of the new Orders is the extension of Sunday Protection to eleven counties. The worst, from the Bird Pro- tectors' point of view, is the abbreviation of close-time for certain species, by which Gulls have been practically deprived of all protection in the breeding-time in four coun ties, one of which (Banff) invites the cheap- tripper and the plume-hunter to come and extirpate its sea-birds during the breeding- season, \)y removing protection not only from Common, Herring and Black-headed GulLs, but also from harmless Kittiwakes and Terns, and from Gannet and Fulmar Petrel. On the other hand, Aberdeen, after study- ing the evidence afforded by the researches of Professor Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen University, has decided to protect the eggs of the Black-headed Gull, the species having received a severe set-back in the county smce the County Council removed protection from the eggs in 1908. In Kincardineshire the Herring Gull is excluded from protection on the ground, it appears, that it does great injury to crops. The taking of Lapwing's eggs is prohibited in Kincardine and Caithness after April 1st ; and in all other counties (so far as the Orders are issued) after April loth. The effort of sportsmen to secure better protection for the Woodcock has resulted in no few than five different close-time periods for the bird in Scotland. Orders have also been issued since January 1st, 1911, for Derbyshire, B C E F S ; York- shire, North Riding, A (b) C F ; Yorkshire, East Ridmg, A (b) A (e) B C D E F S ; County Borough of Great Yarmouth, B C E F S ; County Borough of Newport, A (b) A (e) C C E F S ; and for Mayo, for eggs of certain species, and Wexford, for all eggs in the Saltee and Keeragh Islands. A new Bird Protection Order for Malta was issued on January 24th, 1911. 60 BIBD NOTES AND NEWS IN THE COURTS. PoisoKiNG Larks with Strychnine. — At Meth- u'old (Norfolk), on March 7th, Arthur Banham, farmer, and Ernest Walker, labourer, of Feltwell, were charged, the one with aiding and abetting and the other with laying grain poisoned with strychnine on land at Feltwell. The grain was distributed in a stubble field in the occupation of Mr. John Pryor, and was found by the County Analyst to be heavily dosed with strychnine. The case resulted from the susjsicions of a gamekeeper who noticed a trail of corn and some dead Larks. The offence was ad- mitted by Banham, who said that he sent the birds to Leadenhall Market. It was shown that he had sent 77 dozen Larks to the Market between January 3rd and January 23rd, all being intended for human consumption. Banham was fined, with costs, £8 2s., or two months' imprisonment in default, and Walker, as the tool of the older man, was fined only 10s. BiRDCATCHiNG. — At Havant, on February 11th, William W^iflfin, said to be a professional birdcatcher, was fined Is. and 9s. costs for having in his possession eleven Goldfinches recently caught. He said he had bought the birds from a birdcatcher. [As the possible fine is £1 per bird, it does not appear that the Havant Bench set much value on their Gold- finches.]— Henry Waters, clerk-of -works under the Havant Rural District Council, was also charged with catching Goldfinches. Wiffin said he bought the birds from Waters, who had nets out and told him he caught eleven birds that day, and 86 the previous day. Defendant said he caught birds as a hobby, and on this occasion was out with a friend trying to catch a Siskin, " a rare bird which comes from Russia, and flies once in seven years." The Bench thought there was some doubt, and dismissed the case. [The doubt may well have been as to the extraordinary story of the Siskin, if related as it appears in the Portsmouth papers]. — At South Shields, on February 9th, Josei^h Ronaldson was fined 10s. and costs for possession of Larks, Linnets and a Goldfinch. He said the birds were taken in Brighton, and he had had them over two months ; but when the police found him offering them for sale the jorevious Saturday, one had still bird-lime on its wings. — At Grantham, on February 11th, Harry and John Hunt were fined lis. each for using a net to take Goldfinches. The Chairman ordered the nets to be confiscated, but it appeared that the police had not seized them. Cruelty to Decoy Birds. — At Birmingham, on January 13th, William Twigger was fined 40s. and costs, and Henry Knight 20s. and costs, for cruelty to a decoy Lark. When they saw the police they cut the string to let the bii"d fly, but it was too much exhausted and died. Twigger had been previously convicted. — At Nottingham, on January 12th, Herbert Parr, a birdcatcher, was fined 5s. for cruelty to decoy Starlings. He had thirty-five live Starlings in a mesh bag, and two died on the way to the police-station. — At Market Weighton, on January 5th, Seaton Roberts was fined 10s. and costs for cruelty to four decoy-birds, two Twites, a Chaffinch and a Bullfinch, which were braced in the usual way and drawn up and down to attract birds into the nets. Torturing a Bird. — At CheHerfield, on December 24th, four colliers, Thomas Gullett, Henry French, Enoch Townsend, and John Shelton, were charged with atrocious cruelty to a wild bird, which they appeared to have tortured in every waj' they could devise. The Mayor said it was the most brutal afiair that had ever come before hun ; and he must have regretted his inability to order a flogging. Gullett and French were sent to gaol for a month, and the others fined £1 each. Shooting a Swan. — At Lowestoft, Albert Edward Hazel was charged with shooting a Swan, valued at £5 5s., at Carlton Colville, on January 15th, and F. R. Rice, publican, with receiving the same. The bird, which was very tame, was shot by Hazel, and taken to feed some wolves kept by Rice. Other Swans had been killed or injured previously. Fined four guineas each. The Law as to Possession. — At Brighton, on March 3rd, Henry and Thomas Pannett were con- victed of being in possession of newly-caught Linnets, birds protected all the year, within the borough. The defence was that the birds were caught in the county, where they are not protected. Henry, with five previous convictions, was fined 14s. and costs, Thomas 7s. and costs. Ready Shortly, Price 6d. "FEATHERS AND FACTS." A Reply to the Feather -Trade, and Review of Facts with reference to the Persecmion of Birds for their Plumaoe. Published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. Bird Notes and News (issued quarterly) will be sent post free to any address for Is. per annum, payable in advance ; single numbers, 3d. To Members of the Society subscribing 5s. and upwards per annum it is forwarded gratis and post free. Printed by Witherby & Co., 326, High Holborn, W.C, and published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. Vol. IV., No. 6. Photo. F.lliott &^ Fry. The Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL of Monreith. Bart. Viee-President Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. BIRD NOTES mo NEWS JlssuetJ O^uartcrlii hn tbc Hoiial Society for tbe ^rotErtion of ^irDs. Vol. IV.— No. 6.] London : 23, Quken Anne's Gate, S.W. [JUNE 24, 1911. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— YI. LTHOUGH so considerable an interval occurred between the Acts of 1881 and of 1894, ornithologists were Avell aware that the legislation obtained Avas faulty and incomplete. Wild-birds were given a close time — more or less of a farce except in the case of the scheduled siDecies — but all eggs were unprotected, and it was obvious that if the eggs of a rare species were taken with sufficient persistence there would soon not be any of the birds to protect. In 1891, just when the feehng for Bird Protection was expressing itself in the formation of the Society for the Protection of Birds, opinion as to the protec- tion of eggs in particular was quickened by two specific outrages on the part of pro fessional collectors. Earty in the j'ear Lord LiKord drew attention in the Times, and Mr. Walter James in the House of Commons, to an association calling itself the " Naturalists' Publishing Company," which had organized an egg-collecting expedition to " the land of the Great Auk," meaning the Shetland Isles, recommended as one of the best collecting-grounds for marine birds in the United Kingdom, [It cannot be said that twenty years of Bird Protection work have rid the country of this sort of thing, when in 1911 a great railway company blazons the collection of eggs at a Yorlcshire resort as .an incentive to tourist traffic] In replying to Mr. James, the Lord Advocate suggested that landowners on the threatened islands might apply for an interdict against illegal trespass, the intention to commit which had been pubHcty amiounced. In August, 1901, Dr. Vachell brought before the British Association a flagrant case of wanton destruc- tion of eggs on Grassholm (South Wales), and a committee was formed by the Association to consider the need for legislative protection. An excellent lead had already been given by a Bill introduced in February by Mr. Alfred Pease, backed by Mr. Arthur Acland, Mr. Asquith, Colonel Dawnay, Sir Edward Grey, Lord Granby, and Mr, Sydney Buxton, which proposed to empower County Councils to fine any person 5s. who should take or destroy, or incite to the destruction of, any egg of any wild- bird they should name in their Order, during the time and in the place specified therein. The Bill further proposed to extend close time to August 12th ; to repeal the Act of 1881 (inserting the Lark in the schedule of the Act of 1880), and to fine any person £5 who should knowingly and wilfuUy kill, or use boat or net or Hme for killing or taking, or should expose for sale, any of the l)irds named in the schedule to the BiU. This was the first attempt to give all-the-year protection to any species, the birds selected being as follows : Avocet, Bearded Tit, Bittern, Buzzard, Chough, Crossbill, Dartford Warbler, Dotterel, Eagle, Goldfinch, Great Skua, Harrier, Kentish Plover, Hobby, Hoopoe, Kite, Merlin, Nightjar, Osprey, Owl, Phalarope, Peregrine Falcon, Raven, Ruff, St. Kilda Wren, Sandgrouse, Stone Curlew, Tern, Woodpecker. County Councils might do worse than consider this list Avhen drawing up their Orders to-day. This Bill passed its second reading on July 6th, but was then withdrawn. 62 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. In 1893 a re-cast of the Egg Clause of Mr. Pease's Bill was brought in as the principal jjurpose of a Bill introduced on April 20th by Sir Herbert Maxwell. This gave the County Councils power to draw up schedules of birds for protection and to prohibit any person taking or destro3dng, or inciting to the taking or destruction of, the eggs of named species in any specified place. The fine was raised to £1, and the Order was to be advertised in local newspapers. The Bill passed its second reading amid cheers on May 1st, but trouble began with its passage in the House of Lords. Lord Balfour of Burleigh Avas in charge of the measure in the Upper House, Avhere the second reading was taken on June 1st. In explaining that legislation v/as necessi- tated through the increase in the number of professional collectors — ^who had gone so far as to invite subscriptions for an egg-raid, the profits of v^^hich were to be shared by the subscribers — Lord Balfour had the full support of the House and of the public generally. The collection of eggs, excusable as a scientific aid to the naturahst, had become a mere senseless craze for possession of rareties or curios ; as Lord Safisbury observed in the course of the debate, the passion for collecting was such that the collector no longer cared for the object for which he was supposed to be collecting. Birds as birds interested him not ; he wanted to fiU his cabinet with endless varieties of egg-shells, just as he might fill them with Goss china. DiiSerence of opinion arose, however, as to the best means to secure the end desired, and on this point ornith- ologists could not agree. The question was one of species versus area. One side, led by Sir Herbert Maxwell, wished to leave it to the local authorities to decide what bu"ds should be scheduled for protection. The other, led by Professor Newton, \agorously opposed this in favour of protection of all eggs within specified areas. There was much reason in both contentions ; but the abiHty with which the arguments were advanced Avrecked the Bill. Lord Balfour intimated at once that he was prepared for amendments and was not resiDonsible for the drafting of the proposals ; and it soon became e\adent that sweeping changes were impending. The Duke of Richmond, indeed, characteristically thanked heaven that there was a House of Lords to deal with a Bill which gave County Councils power to prohibit a man shooting his own game, should they choose to schedule Grouse and Pheasants. The Lord Chancellor (Herschell) also spoke of the alarm raised by an egg-clause Avhich might lead to the infliction of punishment on boys who followed " the natural pursuit of bird-nesting," whereas the rare birds were just those which were not largely affected by this pastime. In the result the acting clauses of the original Bill were replaced by a clause prohibiting the taking or destroying of all eggs in any specified place or places within the county ; an offender taking or destrojdng, or procuring, aiding or inciting any person with intent to con- travene the law, being made hable to a fine of £5, with a further £1 for every egg taken or destroyed. The Council, in their appKca- tion, AA^ere to define the hmits of each area, and declare it to be no larger than necessar}^ and also to state that they had grounds for believing the area was frequented by birds in danger of extinction unless their eggs were protected. Additional clauses gave Councils power to add to the schedule, for any specified place or places, specified birds, rare or in danger of becoming rare ; and required the publication of notices in conspicuous places. The main amendment was the work BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 63 of Lord Walsingham, the narrowing down was due chiefly to Lord Herschell. Lord Walsingham proposed the affixing of notices on every school-house, church and chapel door, in the county, in addition to placards at the boundaries of the area. He further proposed to authorize the taking of eggs for the British Museum, but this was objected to as a dangerous precedent by Lords Kimberley and Salisbury, and the Duke of Argyll. On the return of the Bill to the House of Commons in this metamorphosed condition, Sir Herbert Maxwell refused to accept the changeling, believing its provisions to be unworkable, and it was accordingly thro\Mi out. The controversy was naturally not confined to ParHament, nor did it end with the rejec- tion of the Bill. Professor Newton promptly wTote to the Times to defend the Lords' measure as eminently practical : " If it become law a vast step will be taken towards attaining the objects desired by all persons interested in Bird Protection." Dr. Vachell called on natural history societies to influence their M.P.'s ; Sir Herbert Maxwell opposed the " area " principle : If it were desirable to protect Nightingales, say on Wimbledon Common, how absurd to have to protect the eggs also of Jackdaws and Crows. If they wished to protect the Skua, why pro- hibit the taking of eggs which formed the islanders' harvest ? Again, why must birds be certified rare before the law might protect them ? Surely it was desirable that people should be allowed to preserve Goldfinches and Kingfishers and Owls and other inter- esting and useful species ? Professor Newton, on the other hand, urged the impossibility of absolutely identifying eggs, a question on which every prosecution would turn, and the unfitness of County Councillors to draw up lists. Mr, Digb}^ Pigott suggested a third plan, adapted from Dutch law, by which eggs should be recognized as the jiropert}^ of the man on Ashosc land they Mere laid. This. was supported by Lord Lilford, who said that " if landowners would take as much interest in their wild-birds as they mostl}' did in their game, legislation would be unnecessary," Unfortunately this " if " becomes more and more inconceivable. Newton rejoined that in few countries of Europe had extermination proceeded so fast as in Holland, Both sides of the question M ere brought fonvard at the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of Birds in February, 1894. In April, 1894, Sir Herbert Maxwell introduced the Bill which is practically the Act now in force, enabling Councils to add birds to the schedule, and giving the alter- native of scheduling specified eggs or of forming areas for the protection of all eggs. Tills happy compromise saved the situation, although Professor Newton expressed his fear that the retention of the " vicious principle " of the old Bill would lead to " that mischievous course " being in most cases followed. The Bill was backed by Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Joseph Pease, JNIr, Loder, Captain Bagot, and Sir William Ingram. It was introduced into the House of Lords by the Earl of Onslow, and received the Royal Assent on July 20th, 1894. {To he continued.) The Right Hon. Sir Herbert MaxweU, to whom Bird Protectors are indebted for the Act of 1894, and also for the St. Ivilda Act of 1904, was one of the original Vice- Presidents of the Society for the Protection of Birds, elected at the first general meeting held in March, 1893. 64 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. uS)^ ^^sr Economic Ornithology. ..ecies of Asiatic Pheasants of genus Lophophorus — as the Impeyan Pheasant, the Argus — any one of the several species of Asiatic Plieasants of genus Argusiamis (Argus Pheasant), the Crowned Pigeon — any of the several species of large Crested-Pigeons of genus Goura inhabiting New Guinea and the adjacent islands, tlie Rheas and the Owls. Until the British Parliament passes a law to prohibit the importation of Plumage, the protection of birds in the Colonies is hedged in by almost insurmountable difficulties, for as long as London provides a lucrative mart for feathers, smuggUng will be rife. Importers themselves have declared that they cannot prevent such smugghng ^vhile the facilities for sale remain. " The trade," saj^s their spokesman in his official defence of the business, " cannot control consignments to a free market." The Report of the Colonial Office Com- mittee, appointed to investigate the facts with reference to the birds of the British Empire, is looked for with confidence by Bird Protectors, and it is hoped that the Government will then introduce a Bill of their own, or give facilities for the passing of Lord Avebury's Bill to proliibit the importation of plumage. Ihis Committee has been dealing solely with the birds of Greater Britain, but while these are being destroyed in face of drastic colonial laws, how much more is protection needed for the preservation of the beautiful birds of many lands where laws are non-existent, and where the enforcement of them would be impossible did they exist ! The latest achievement of the trade has been the exhibition in a West-end shop in London of women's shoes made entirely of the feathers of Humming Birds, with the prominent announcement that these are the " most expensive " shoes ever made — the blatant vulgarity of this recommendation bemg only equalled by the deplorably bad taste of the exhibit itself. It is interesting to look at this much-advertised novelty in the hght of the trade's recent statements. Humming Birds, Mr. Downham has informed us, have been unsaleable — unused — a drug in the market — for twenty years. An anonymous circular - letter, headed " Audi alteram partem — The Plumage Bill," has lately been circulated, the plea coming characteristically from a spokesman who hides under a pseudonym, and ventures to give neither place nor date. It is hardly necessary to say that the document consists of a repetition of the old falsehoods, seasoned with abuse of the " sickly sentimentality " which can regard anything except from the standpoint of its money value. Anyone who wishes for a fuU answer to these and similar statements, will find it in the R.S.P.B. pamphlet " Feathers and Facts," and in Mr. Buckland's pamphlet " Pros and Cons." BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 71 In their assertion that " osprey " feathers are cast and picked-up feathers found on breeding-grounds in Venezuela, the trade have rehed largely on statements made by Mayeul Grisol, wlio is described as " Naturalist and explorer of the Honorary Mission of the Museum of Natural History at Paris." So incredible did his assertions appear to American naturalists, that the president of the American Natural History Museum cabled an enquiry as to the status of M. Grisol. The reply from Paris received April 22nd, 1911, was : " Mayeul Grisol unknown." UcT Public'-Scbool Essays. ^^^^ TWO BIRDS OF THE RIVERSIDE. In the Spring Number of Bird Notes and News, extracts were given from the Essays on Lapwing and Hawk which took first and second places in the Public-School Essay Competition, 1910. The habit of the Lapwing in building sham nests, may be compared with the similar custom of the Water-hen mentioned in one of the j)apers from which quotations are now given. A still more familiar instance is that of the AVren's " cock-nests." THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. " The Grebe lays late in May but I have found fresh eggs as late as June 27th. The nest is a clumsy af?air, consisting of reeds and sedges piled together among the rushes at the edge of a lake. When alarmed, the birds cover up their eggs with pieces of rush before leaving the nest. This, I suppose, is to ensure them against the attacks of Crows and Magpies, to whom they would be quite conspicuous. Whilst on the hunt for food, they sink quite low in the water, holding the head and neck straight and low. , They keep well on the move, and the moment they see anything worthy of notice they dive like a flash, usually coming to the surface to eat. " When alarmed also, the bird sinks very low, with head erect, generally uttering the alarm-note, a kind of ' Kek, kek.' WTien put off its nest or badly frightened, it evades its enemy by a series of long dives, and can go for a considerable distance under water. " The Great Crested Grebes at Frensham Pond in Surrey seem to stay the whole winter, and to remain more or less in pairs, and, there at least, they are apparently not gregarious. I have never seen them fly, although I have no doubt they can, as in some parts of England they are partial migrants. " Occasionally I have seen them, in the nesting - time, bathing themselves as ducks often do — by rushing along the surface of the water for a short distance, splashing with their wings and ducking themselves. They spend a lot of their time in floating idly on the water and preening their feathers in the sun. " The only two Grebes that I have seen on Frens- ham Pond are the Great Crested and the Little Grebe or Dab-chick. I cannot remember ever having seen or heard of the Sclavonian, Eared, or Red-necked Grebe appearing there ; but I believe it is occasionally seen on the south, coast. I once saw a stiiffed specimen in a shop window at Bognor that was shot in Paghara Harbour. " I can well remember the time when there was only one pair of Great Crested Grebes at Frensham, and I have noticed a steady increase in their numbers until now I could count at least a dozen, showing that the bird is less persecuted than formerly. For this, thanks are chiefly due to the laws prohibiting the destruction of our wild-birds, and, more especially the rare ones. I sincerely hope that the Grebe will continue to increase, for I shall never be tired of seeing the beautiful bird floating peacefully on Frensham Pond." Oliver Hook {Third Prize, tie). Charterhouse. THE MOOR-HEX'S XEST. " The nest of the Water-hen or Moor-hen is made of reeds and sedge loosely matted together, placed on the grovmd by the water, or in a tree on a bough overhanging the lake. \Mien, however, these 72 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. materials are not to be got, a nest of sticks is made, and sometimes is jjlaced in the middle of the jjond, if it is shallow. But to naake one nest does not content the parent. Her needs require three or four, and the use of these reserve nests has puzzled manj^ ornithologists. The uses of them are probably two. The first of these, which I can support with a little personal observation, is probably to serve as a resting-place for the young birds when they make their first swim in the water, as I have often seen them, after they have just come out 9f the egg, swim- ming frona nest to nest, taking brief rests between their short swims. The other explanation is that when the water rises so as to threaten the nest, the Water -hen takes her eggs and carries them to the reserve nest, and lays them there while she raises the nest above danger, when she carries them back in like fashion. This, I think, would be a very liretty sight, but I have never seen it done. " Both eggs and chicks are subject to maiiy dangers, rats attacking the former, while pike and cats often end the latter's existence. " In siunmer the Water-hen is a rather shy bird, and flees at man's approach, but in the winter will often come on to a lawn, even close to a house, to look for worms, slugs, snails and suchlike, which compose its chief food The bird's flight is quite a strong one, but it is most often seen flying just above the water, with its feet touching the surface. The feet are not webbed as in most water-fowl, so that it is as much at home on the land as on the water, and can run quite fast. " This is i^robably the only bird which has been caught on a fish-hook. While fishing once I suddenly saw one of this species dive for my worm, but as I had heard of similar accidents I quickly drew up the line before it had time to snatch at the bait. A friend of mine, however, on drawing up one of his night-lines felt a weight on the end, and congratvilated himseK on a catch. At the other end was no fish, but a dead Moor-hen. " I once took two of this bird's eggs and put them under a sitting-hen. She hatched the eggs, but inunediately she saw the chicks, furiously she dashed at them and trod them to death. A hen is generally such a good mother to any bird she may have hatched, that I consider this rather remarkable, and cannot attempt to explain it. I have never tried the experiment again, so that I cannot tell if it is an habitual occurrence." B. A. Medley, Winchester College. IN THE COURTS. Shooting a Snow-Bunting. — At Cardiff, on June 13th, Bert Ansaldo was charged with possession of a newly-killed Snow-Bunting. Defendant was one of a ral)bit-shooting party who went over from Cardiff to the Island of Flat Hobn, where the bird was nesting. He denied ha\dng shot it, but on being discharged was severely censured by the Bench. [The case was pressed by the R.S.P.B., this being the first record of the Snow-Bunting bree:ling so far south, and at the request of their representative the bird was forfeited, and will be presented to the Cardiff Musevim.] Taking Lapwing's Eggs. — At Peterhead, on April 13th, two seamen were fined 3s. each for taking six Lapwing's eggs. The Sheriff said the fine was small, as the aim was principallj^ to warn otliers. Bird-catching. — At Great Yarmouth, on April 11th, Albert Edward Garrett was fined 20s. for using nets to take Goldfinches and Linnets, and for cruelty to a Linnet decoy, wliich was badly bruised. He had birds, cages and a stow-box in his possession. Defendant said he did not set the nets to catch birds, and it was not the brace which bruised the bird. Nets and gear were forfeited. (Yarmouth has recently obtained a Protection Order, and evidently means to look after its birds). — At Sproatley ( Yorkshire), on April 25th, Ai'thur Marshall was fined 10s. and costs for taking wild- bii'ds. Nets to be confiscated. — At the Children's Court, Chelmsford, on Ajiril 7th, WilUam Bundock, aged 15, was convicted of taking birds with a net. He had at his home two Goldfinches, five Linnets and a Greenfinch, and his father admitted that the boy had been in the habit of bird-catching for two or tliree months. Let off on payment of costs and the liberation of the bii'ds. R.S.P.B. COMPETITIONS. The following are the dates by which Essays should reach the Society ; — Bird - and - Tree Essays (Elementary Schools), August 1st. Public-School Essays, October 7th. Protection of Crops, December 1st. Particulars may be obtained from the Secretary, R.S.P.B., 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. JJll who are interested in Bird Protection should read "FEATHERS AND FACTS." A Reply to the Feather -Trade, and Review of Facts with reference to the Persecution of Birds for their Plumage. — Price 6d. Published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. BiBD Notes and News (issued quarterly) will be sent post free to any address for Is. per annum, payable in advance ; single numbers, 3d. To Members of the Society subscribing 5s. and upwards per annum it is forwarded gratis and post free. Printed by Witherby & Co., 326, High Holborn, W.C., and published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. Vol. IV.. No. 7 ORIAENBANKNENT Ljrim&SoythWesterBRailwag^ ^J?i^ MIDLAND TO SCOTLAND ST PAl ••THE STORY OF THE EGRET." Poster exhibited by the Society on 100 bill-posting stations in London, Aug. 15th— Sept. 13th, 1911. Sandwiehmen employed by the Society to patrol London West-end streets, July 10th --29th, 191 1. BIRD MOTES mo MEWS. Issued (QuaftLTln by the llonal .^ocictu for tbc ^rotzctian of |Sirtis. Vol. IV.— No. 7.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [SEPT. 29, 1911. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— YII. IHI:^ duty of Bird Protection having been for the first time relegated to local authorities by the Act of 1894, anxiety was naturally felt as to the extent and manner in which they would avail themselves of its provisions. In October, the Home Secretarj^ (Mr. Asquith) issued a letter to County Councils, drawing attention to the Act. Canon Rawnsley wrote eloquent letters to the Times, pleading for its immediate and efficient utilization, and pointing out that fourteen or fifteen species of birds had been lost to Britain, some within living memory. ^Mr. Coideux urged, in the Times, the advantages of " area " protection, especially in the case of shore-birds ; the great need for such sanctuaries might be gathered from the fact that in the previous season (1894) not a single brood of the Lesser Tern was hatched out at Spurn, and the Lincolnshire coast was swept of all eggs by collectors, dealers, or for sale to excursionists. Strong pressure was also brought to bear on the Councils by ornithologists and Bird Protectors. It follo\A ed that in several instances the appli- cations of the Councils Avere in advance of the Home Office definition of the Act. The Middlesex Council, for example — which, under the Vice-Chairmanship of 'Mr. Montagu Sharpe. from the first took the lead on the subject of Bird Protection, asked for a five years" Order pro- hibiting the taking of all eggs throughout the county, in consequence of the havoc committed by bird-nesters. London and Surrey made similar requests. All three were refused : and in March. 1895, Mr, Asquith issued another circular letter, stating the principles on which the Act should be administered, and expressing the opinion that it was intended to prevent the extinction or serious diminution of rare and interesting birds without any undue creation of a new offence, such as would result from penalizing bird-nesting as such. This Home Office dictum indicated where protection for areas must fail of effect : if general egging could not te prohibited in any considerable area, then it became obviously neces.sary to utilize that second power given under the Act on which Sir Herbert Maxwell had insisted, and protect the eggs of certain species throughout counties. Otherwise it would be impossible, for instcince. to protect a Buzzard, a Dartford \\'arb!er. a Colden Oriole, breeding in the mid.st of a w ide area and among common species. By the end of 1895, fourteen Egg Orders had been obtained for England and Wales ; four were limited to defined areas, seven named certain species for protection through- out the administrative counties, and three made use of both methods. In later years the naming of species has become by far the commoner practice. England and Wales have still only seventeen protected breeding- areas, while some seventy counties and county boroughs protect named species of eggs. The area principle is undoubtedly the more effectual where it can be enforced by local landowners or by Watchers. Scotland had utiUzed the area only in the case of islands. 74 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. The necessity for protection of our more lireeious and more threatened birds, beyond the tenn of the nesting-period, and for further measures to check destruction by the bird- catcher, now became imperative. The latter and less-successful effort may be taken first. The Annual Report of the Society for the Protection of Birds for 1894, says : — " The new Act, which seeks to protect our rare species by seciiring them from molestation during the breeding-season, has caused mxich controversy, and ()j)inions are still divided as to its workability ; whereas there has been no controversy and there is no difference of opinion on the bird-catching question. Here all men are agreed, and have been agi-eed for many years past, that legislation is greatly needed. . . The birds that survive and are properly cared for by their buyers, are a small remnant : for the rest, the bird-catching industry is merely a massacre of creatures which have their use in nature, and at the same time give to the country its greatest charm. . . That it should be lawful for men from the slimis of East London and of other towns to go out into the highways and conamons and drain the country-side of its wild bird-life seems almost incredible." Presiding at the Annua] Meeting of the Society the following February, Mr. Sydney Buxton expressed the opinion that "A Bill should be introduced i nto Parliament, dealing with tliis important (juestion, for it was monstrous that public roads and walks should l)e utilized by trappers, with all the cruelties attendant on their practice, such as the torture of the decoy birds and the captivity of the victims in suffocating little cages." He promised such a Bill his earnest support. A year later the Society supported by unanimous resolution at its meeting, a Bill framed by its Chairman Mr. Sharpe, dealing M'ith. })ird-catchers as trespassers, and pro- viding for the seizure of their nets and decoys. This Bill was introduced into the House of Lords on March 12th, 1896, by Lord Stamford, Mho stated that he brought it forward at the instance of the Society for the Protection of Birds, an association that had exercised a most beneficial influence upon legislation of this character. Its object was to remedy two defects of the Act of 1880, which required that a liird-catoher must be caught in the very deed, and gave no power for the confiscation of his apparatus. The County Councils Association considered that some additional check was necessary on account of the nui- sance caused by professional bird-catchers and other unauthorized persons trespassing in pursuit of wild-birds with nets, guns, and snares ; with attendant danger to the public, and possible extinction of interesting and valuable species of birds. The trespass clause of the Bill was confined to the Metropolitan Police district, but the Home Secretary might issue a similar Order for any county on the application of the Council. The clause made it an indictabls offence for any person to trespass upon land " having in his possession or being in com pany with any other person having any trap, net, snare, line, caged bird, gun, or other instrument used for killing or taking any wild-bird." The second j)art of the Bill provided that, where any person was found offending against this Act or the Act of 1880, it should be lawful for the owner or occupier of the land or his servant or the police, to seize any of the instruments for killing or taking birds in the possession of the offender, or of any person accompanying him, and to detain them until the sitting of the Court, when the Court might, on conviction, order the articles to be destroyed or sold. Lord Belper, on behalf of the Home Office, opposed the Bill, as going to unnecessary lengths and introducing sweeping changes in the law of trespass. As to the clause giving the Home Secretary power to extend its provisions, the Home Secretarj^ did not want that power put upon him. He sug- gested that if such provisions were thought desirable, the Bill might be amalgamated with Lord Jei\sey's Bill, \\ith which the House was acquainted, and which dealt with the same object in a very different vs ay. Finding the Government against him. Lord BIBD NOTES AND NEWS. 76 Stamford withdrew the measure on Ma}'' 15th, after the second reading of Lord Jersey's Bill. Its main provision, however, found no place in the ultimate enactment ; and although the valuable power to forfeit apparatus was retained, half its value was lost by the omission of the power to seize and detain. Lord Stamford sought to encourage the Society (in 1897) by assuring them that there was no reason to doubt that further legislation in this direction would be welcomed as the years passed on. But the bird-catcher, as a public nuisance, has not yet been dealt with. With reference to Part VI. of " The Story of Bird Protection," dealing Avith the Act of 1894, Mr. Harvie-Brown, F.R.S.E., writes :— " On the above excellent article upon the subject which has so much of interest to bird-lovers and true woll-wishers amongst naturalists, it seems not inai)])i"o]iriate to \enture a few remarks. " We must, I think, all agree with Lord Balfour's original remarks, but we are also free to advocate the means employed on this side or on that. For my own part, I believe in the advocacy of the ' protection of certain species within specified areas.' Without access to all that was said on both sides, i.e. in favotir of local authorities' decision versus ' jirotection of areas,' and the question of the ability of the arguments on both sides, it is difficult at this lapse of time to feel certain of the ground covered. " With the Duke of Richmond and Gordoii we cannot but agree,that there should not be too drastic interference with the undeniable rights of jiroperty ; and in this respect, tnd)/ one law for the rich and for the poor. " With regard to a * natural piu-su it of bird-nesting' common to all boys, that is already becoming modified in its effects ; and boys are being taught that bird-nesting may be continued without the senseless destruction or pilfering of the contents of the nests. It is curious that in some districts, in order to assist our police in carrying out the law, the collecting of the eggs of various species in such districts has not only been advocated, but e\en carried out ; and avowedly for this piu'pose, j)olice- men have been so encoLU'aged themselves to form collections of birds-eggs. I can vouch for this in at least one district in the south-east of Scotland. Similarly, if knowledge and the training of futirre ornithologists and oologists is not entirely to be given up, it is equally desirable that a certain pro- portion of birds-eggs be collected — as the phrase runs — ' for scientific purposes.' The difficulty is to define the line at which such collecting should stop. But this af)pears plain enough — local atdlioriiiea in such affairs can scarcely be expected to be fair judges ! If tho British Museum be allowed to go against the general law, why not the schoolboy and the poUceman who collect for scientific or legal (?) purposes — or rather, as said, who shall be judge between them ? " The simj)lest method aj)pear8 to be : The pro- tection of certain areas which are known to contain tho nesting haunts of rare species. In this I have always agreed with Professor A. Newton, though I would reserve to the owners of land the right to keep down to reasonable limits — according to their own judgment — Jackdaws and Crows and ' vormin ' within such defined areas, thus probably best pro- tecting the said rarer species it is designed by law to protect therein ; and to grant to such jilaces whore the eggs of w ild-birds ' form a harvest to the poor islanders ' — freedom, excopt in the case of rarer s])ocios. Nobody could be trusted to do this better — by law — than the servants on such estates ; and thus recognize that birds' eggs are the property of the man on whose land they are laid. "Sir Herbert Maxwell's compromise certainly appears to be the only sensible way out of the diffi- culty But though adopted in some admirable instances where nothing else coidd ha\e worked better, some of these same areas ha\ o -ince been swallowed u]) by some general ado]4ion of whole- county areas, as in the case of Tontsniuir, Fife ; and oven extended — with a charu/e of (Jovernment — to much larger and loss well-defined areas, comphcating tho work of County Councils and local authorities, instead of simplifjang it. To ma'( migratory l)irds in the southern countries, where in s[)ito of international laws the bird-catchers anniliilato millions of every s|)0cies which con- stitute the charm of our country-side when spring appears. Tlio smaller number of broods is ex|)lained by the greater density of the riu"il |)oi)ulation, the enclosing of land causing the destruction of those thickets and hedges in which birds find a safe refuge." With regard to encouraging the birds, Dr. Bourget advocates cultivation of hedges and thickets, and the provision of artificial nesting-boxes everywhere, around houses and in forests. As to the latter, he cites the case of the Grand Duchy of Baden, of Bavaria, and of Wurtemburg, where the forests of the State are models of healthy vigorous growth, thanks to the propagation of climb- ing birds — Woodpeckers and others — which keep down the parasites of the trees. •' Dr. Chatolain de Saint-Blaise, the beautiful writer, has made the region of Pr^fargier a paradise for birds, by reserving in all the walls of the i)roperty and in other available places, small cavities where birds can find perfect seciu"ity for their nests." Finally Dr. Bourget advocates the estab- lishment of small preserves, with thick ever- green hedges, a supplj' of nesting-boxes, and the provision of fruiting trees, arbutus, elder, service-tree, barberry, hawthorn, etc. — and of plants with oleaginous seeds, which would preserve through the winter thousands of birds " which in sj^ring would spread them- selves over the country to the great advantage of agi'iculture." A new Bird Protection Order has been issued for Lancashire (September 1st, 1911), by which the coast from Southport to Formby has been declared a protected area for birds and eggs. Sunday pro- tection is also given for practically the whole county, and all-the-year protection to a number of species. Close time is extended to September 1st, except for Wild-Duck, Snipe, and Woodcock. 82 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. ueT Bird^and-'Tree (Arbor) Day. .^sr CHALLENGE SHIELD COMPETITIONS. Three things combined this year to reduce the amount of work sent in for the competition. Last year's break in the arrangenjents, owing to the change in dates, slackened interest — other subjects taking the place of Bird-and-Tree study ; the Coronation festivities interrupted work of every kind ; the abnormal heat rendered effort almost impossible. That so many really admirable essays should have been written with a thermometer over 80° does infinite credit to all concerned. Intelligent observation is more than ever the dominant note. The commoner and more conspicuovis birds are still usually taken, but this time the Wren has leaped into sudden popularity in every county, and the Tree-creeper, Green Woodpecker, Kingfisher, Shrike, and Goosander figure on the lists. The Judges were : Mr. Montagu Sharpe, the Rev. J. G. Tuck, Mr. Ernest Bell, Mr. G. A. Freeman,B.Sc., Mr. W. H. Hudson, Mr. T. Hastings Lees, Mr. Mr. J. R. B. Masefield, Mr. A. Trevor-Battye, Miss Clifton, and Miss Gardiner. INTER-COUNTY COMPETITION. The Inter-County Shield goes to the Victoria Council School, Wellingborough (Northants). The essays are not eqiial in style and feeling to those sent in from Buckland, the last winners, but they show acute and studious observation. Sholing Girls' School (Hampshire) is given second place ; Henley-in-Arden (Warwickshire) and Melmerby (Cumberland) are equal thirds ; and the work from all the comities competing is imusually equal in merit. BEDFORDSHIRE. The advance made by the Bedfordshire Schools since they started work for the competition is very striking, and the reading of the essays this year has been a pleasant task. It was no easy matter to decide whether Mogerhanger or Wobvirn Boys Council School should be placed first, but the admirable observation notes from Mogerhanger give precedence to that school ; both boys and girls seem to have put their hearts into their work. Woburn, however, is a capital second. The Bird papers in particular are first-rate, and mention may be made of H. A. Lewis's paper on the Goosander, and Hubert Pratt's sketch of the Mallard. Potton Council School comes third, observation and draw- ings both being most creditable. Where are the Wobvxrn and Potton girls ? Have they, too, not eyes to see and ears to hear ? Other schools to be commended are Clophill, Thurleigh (which should be high up in the competition for 1912, seeing that six of the competitors are under 12), Kensworth, and Lidlington, but the last-named team has trans- gressed the rales by writing three papers on one bird. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. For the third year in succession Stony Stratford National School carries off the Shield, by reason of the originality, accuracy, and careful detail con- spicuous in the essays, which are even better than last year's. An essay on the House-Martin is really remarkable for a girl of 13. Next year this school will be entered in the Inter- County Competition only, so that other teams in the county may have a batter chance. Among these. Princes Risborough, Ellesborough, and Coleshill take a high place, and it is difficult to say which sends in the best work. Genuine observation and a bright intelligence characterize all the papers, those on Trees being usually superior to those on Birds, because of lack of attention to the notes of birds and their habits outside the nesting season. Excellent descriptions of the Pear, Whitebeam, and Sycamore come from the three schools respectively, and a notably good paper on the Moor-hen from Coleshill. CUMBERLAND. Results in Cumberland are somewhat of a surprise, the Shield being won by a school which has not previously been among the prize-winners. Melmerby succeeds by virtue of its admirably written essays on Treas, which give true and graphic descriptions in short space. The team's papers on Birds is not so good as those from either Kirkoswald or Morland and Newby (Westmoreland). The Kirkos- wald team, on the other hand, write much better essays on Birds than on Trees (one, on the DiiDjier, especially good), and there is a pleasant sincerity about all the essays ; but Morland School, which BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. m has worked perseveringly for several years, comes out ahead of all the Cumberland schools save one, and takes second place. Closely following, however, c-omo the two previous Shield-winners, Kirkoswald and Greystoke, the latter sending a pa[)er (jn the Alder that is equal to any Tree paper sent in. Two other schools which must be mentioned are St, John's, Keswick, where notebooks have been carefully used, but might have been more amply lillod, and Cargo, where the general level of work done is high. hampshirp:. An exceptional amount of careful and sym- pathetic observation is contained in the essays from a number of Hampshire schools, some of the papers being made up entirely of original matter gained by enthusiastic study. The competition is very close, not half-a-dozen marks in a total of .sixty dividing those taking the six highest places ; one mark only decides the award of the Shield. This goes again to Sholing Girls' School, whose papers are all admirably done. The Sandown Roys, invariably found among the prize-winners, are again to the fore witii excellent work, but so far as Birds are concerned they are outdone in freshness of observation by the boys of Ridge C.E. School ; the two are accordingly bracketed second. There is a charming spontaneity about the essays on Kingfisher and Wagtail from Ridge, equalling those on Wren and Thrush from Sholing. The girls of St. Peter's, Bournemouth, and of Romsey C.E. School, and the mixed team from Boldre, are but little behind. Heartj- com- mendation must also be accorded to the Holme School, Headley ; Bramshaw ; Copythorne ; St. Joseph's R.C., Christchurch ; Barton Stacey ; Laverstoke ; Awbridge ; Hinton Ampner, and Wickham. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. The Northants Shield is well contested, and the ■winners, the Victoria Council School, Welhng- borough, ha\e done most careful and painstaking work in order to secure the trophy. The Tree jjapers are remarkably full, close, and acciuate ; the Bird papers also show intentness of observation, but the boys must be warned against too much meddling with nests and young. The second place is taken by Harleston Council School, and the third by Rushden (Alfred Street) ; both of these teams disjjlay industrious observation. Xery close behind come Cold Higham (C.E.). Rrar.nston, and Rocking- ham ; all denote genuine and enthusiastic study* Particularly good essays are also sent in by Badby, Weedon (Girls), and Irthlingborough, and promising work from a rnuuber of otlier schools. Some (jf the individual jjajjors, such as tliat on " Our Starlings " from Braunton, have a jjjeasant personal touch that the judges would be glad to find in the work more often. A word of congratulation must be given to Blatherwycke Council School, which with an attendance of fifteen scholars sends essays from four. What school can now say that it is too small to start the work? SOMKKSETSHIK!-;. Essays from two schcjols stand out cons|)icuousjy among the interesting papers which can always bo looked for from this county. If age were taken into consideration in the school-against-school com- petition, the highest award would undoubtedly go to Exford, where the work is wonderfully good and original even without allowance for the fact that only two of the team are over 12 years of age. Education in the best sense of the word is evidently given to the children of this Exmoor village ; and another year should place the Shield in their posses- sion. This year the boys of Frome C.E. School (only two of whom are under 12) are again successful, with fine work on a high le\'el of excellence ; but Exford runs them very close. The Frome drawings are, as usual, remarkable for acciurEicy and delicacy. Tlie Tree jjapers from the Oldfield Girls' School, Batli. are first-rate and are excellently illustrated ; those on Birds, though careful and nicely written, are less whoUy successful, ]>erhaps because the birds chosen have not greatly excited the writers' interest, Cleeve and Wembdon niust be coinniended for intelligence in observation which should lead to closer study. WARWICKSHIRE. The Warwicksliire Shield goes again to Henley-in- Arden school-team, winners in 19US. Their essays are very well done indeed, the Trees exceptionally so, while neatness of diction and handwriting, and clever pen-and-ink-drawings, add to the effect of carefvd study. So far as Birds are concerned, they have a strong rival in Mancetter. The papers on Wren and Ivingfisher from thLs school fiu-uish really charming records, carefully and faithfully kept, of daj-by-day observations, appended to a general description. The method is not quite so happy in the case of the Trees. Middleton, winner in 1909, sends excellent Tree papers; those on 84 BIBD NOTES AND NEWS. Birds are full of highly commendable general observation, but neglect a close enough study of the one species. The Harbury team liave had a good lead from their teacher, but have also observed, and show a rare and very pleasant ai)preciation of beauty. Their papers are full of promise. Praiseworthy papers come also from Coughton, Stratford-on-Avon, Minworth, and Haselor, but more attentive observation is needed. OPEN CLASS. A number of schools which entered in this class apparently dropped the study, or wore too self- distrustful to send up their papers. The two schools which receive the highest marks are Totley (Derby- shire), and Hinton Waldrist (Berkshire). Closely kept and accurate diaries, and good sketches, give value to the Berkshire essays, the Trees in par- ticular being well cliosen and well described ; but there is nothing of the habits and general character oi the birds selected. The Totley essays are fresh, original, and childlike, and therefore pleasant to read, though the matter is slight. A third award is made to Preston C.E. School (Herts), wliose neat and comjjact little jiapors are set forth in good, clear handwriting. IN THE COURTS. Cruelty to Bikds. — At Arkloir (Ireland) on June 17th, three boy.-s were charged with possession of a Starling in the close time, and with maliciously destroying portions of a ventilator at St. Saviours Church, Arklow. The boys were at a " wake " near the church, and got into the chvirch-grounds to rob nests. They tied the old V)irds with a cord and pelted them to death with stones. The Chair- man (CJajjtain Pery), R.N., commented severely on the disgraceful fact of the boys being allowed to attend a wake, and on their cruelty. Two of the lads were sent to a reformatory for five years. At i.S7. Austell (Cornwall), on .July (ith, four boys of St. Mewan were found guilt.v of stoning and ill- treating a young Rook. The schoohnaster said he had occasion to punish another l)oy for cruelty to a Robin, and other similar cases had coiTie to light. Ordered to pay the costs. £1 Is. fid. among them, and reprimanded. The Biro Snop.^At Belfast, on July 28th, William Montgomery was fined 2s. fid. and 12s. fid. costs, for possession of a young Cuckoo. The bird was exhibited in the window of defendant's shop, and sold : for the defence it was urged that neither the youth nor his mother, who carried on the business, knew what bird it was. Trapping Birds. — At Skipton, on July 2!)th, Frank Fishburn was fined for setting a trap with a decoy Linnet, and with shooting at scheduled birds with a catapult. Defendant was in his own garden, but the West Riding list of scheduled birds is a long Possession of Wild -Birds. — Three summonses for possession of newly-taken birds in close time were heard at Stowmarket on August 3rd. Two were cases similar in character, of newly-caught birds in cages. Spencer Race said his Thrush and Blackbird were caught in the backyard by his wife ; and Robert Manning said the Thrush in his possession was given to his son by his master, and freed when he got the summons. The case of Harold Peart, a boy, was of a different nature ; he stoned the nest of a House-^Martin on private property, pocketed the bu'd wlien it fell, and afterwards threw it away. Tlie INIartin is a scheduled bird in the county. All three cases, how- ever, were dealt with in the same way, by an order to pay the costs, 4s. each : the chairman of the Bench observed that the boy had been " rather cruel " and must learn to " use a little judgment." Peart was also complained of as a continual annoy- ance to the owner of the garden in which he had trespassed, and was cautioned. NEW LEAFLET. "A Thrush that Never Lived" BY \V. n. HUDSON. Willi Illustration in Colottr by H. Gronvold. Price Sixpence per doz. Ready in October. GOLD IE" THE SOCIETY'S GREETING CARD for 1911-12. Reproduced in Colour from a Painting by Miss Maud Scrivener, WITH CALENDAR FOR igiZ. Price. 3d.; One Dozen, 2/6. Copies may also be had of "CHRISTMAS CAROLLERS," from the Painting by Bellini. Price, 2d.: One Dozen, 1/8. Jill who are interested in Bird Protection should read "FEATHERS AND FACTS." A Reply to the F'eather -Trade, and Review of Facts with relerence to the Persecuiion ol Birds for their Plumage. — Price 6d. Published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 9.3 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. Bird Notes and Nevs^s (issued quarterly) will be sent post free to any address for Is. per annum, payable in advance ; single numbers, 3d. To Members of the Society subscribing os. and upwards per annum it is forwarded gratis and post free. Printed by Withekbv & Co.. 326, High Holborn, W.C, and published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 2'^. Queen Anne's Gate, S.W BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. Vol. IV.. No. 8. ^esting-^ox lencnted by a pair of Qreal "Uiis. ^esl and ^ggs of ^TiCagpie. From "Birds and Birds' Nests of Bromsgrove." By kind permission. BIRD NOTES pimd NEWS Jlssucii Cijuartcrlj bv tljc ilounl ^onetg for tlje protection of gtriia. Vol. IV.— No. 8.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [DEC. 21, 1911. THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— YIII. HE history of the Act of 1886 indicates some of the difficulties in the way of legislation on behalf of Birds, legislation which many people think must be easy to obtain because it is manifestly needed. It has been seen that the Bill for dealing with bird-catchers, brought forward by Lord Stamford at the instance of the R.S.P.B., was opposed because it altered the law of trespass and that it was withdrawn in favour of Lord Jersey's Bill, which also owed its origin largely to Mr. Montagu Sharpe. The County Councils Association had carried in January, 1895, on the motion of Canon Rawnsley, a resolution in favour of legislation granting all-the-year protection to named species of birds. A committee was then formed to enquire into and report upon the action of County Councils ; it consisted of Canon Rawnsley, Mr. Littler, Q.C., and Mr. G. Dixon, of the Association, with the help of the following ornitholo- gists : Lord Lilford, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Colonel Howard Irby, Rev. H. A. Mac- pherson, Messrs. W. Warde Fowler, J. H. Gurney, W. H. Hudson, W. H. St. Quintin, Howard Saunders, Montagu Sharpe, and T, Southwell. Mr. Howard Saunders and Colonel Irby were asked to draw up a list of British land-birds, showing their usual food and demonstrating their utility (or otherwise) to man, with other information for the guidance of Councils. The report was presented, with business-like prompti- tude, in IMarch. In the statement giving details concerning the food of birds, it was estimated that two out of the whole list were destructive ; one (the Rook) beneficial but requiring to be kept down ; six to some extent detrimental, especially to game- preservers ; five to some extent detrimental in gardens and orchards ; and all the rest beneficial or innocuous. Among the recom- mendations of the report was the extension of Close time to August 12th ; the protection of the eggs of scheduled sea-birds after June loth ; the publication of Bird Protec- tion notices at all police and coastguard stations, parish council offices, and elementary schools ; and the addition to the Schedule for all counties, of the Wryneck, Swallow, Martins. Swift, Bearded Tit, Kestrel, Merlin, Hobby, Buzzard, Honey-Buzzard, and Osprey. Meanwhile the Middlesex Council, through their Vice-Chairman Mr. Sharpe, had framed a Bill embodying the resolution of the Association. This was introduced into the House of Lords, on February 25th, 1895.. by Alderman the Earl of Jersey, who ex- plained how greatly Middlesex in particular suffered from eruptions of the >Saturday and Sunday '" sportsman," and how necessary it was that Close-time should be extended for certain birds beyond the breeding-season. The form of the Bill, as it reached the Commons, was identical udth the existing Act of 1896, empowering Councils to prohibit the killing or taking of particular birds or the taking or killing of all birds in particular places, during that part of the time (August- ]\Iarch) to which the Act of 1880 does not apply. A further clause proposed to repeal the words in the Act of 1880 which limit punishment for a first offence to a reprimand and payment of costs. The Bill was passed by the" House of Lords on ]May 29th, but thrown out in the Commons. The measure was re-introduced by Lord Jersey in the following April, with the addition of two clauses from Lord Stamford's Bill ; the one dealing with trespass in pursuit, the other providing for the confiscation of bird-catching apparatus. To illustrate the need for strengthening the law, Lord Jersey mentioned that from 1880 to 1894, the Metropolitan Police District had not furnished a single conviction under the 86 BIHD NOTES AND NEWS. 1880 Act, although that Act was constantly- being infringed in portions of Middlesex. So difficult was it, he added, to obtain a conviction that the attempt was practically given up [a state of things not unknown in more than one district at the present day]. Lord Belper again opposed the trespass clause, and ultimately this was tlirown overboard to save the ship ; while the power of confiscation was limited to the court who convict an offender. In the Commons, where Mr Big wood had charge of the measure, yet another clause was rejected^ that repealing the " first offence " proviso. However well-known the offender and how- ever aggravated the offence, there can still be no punishment for a first conviction save in the case of scheduled birds. With one working clause left, and port well in sight, the dismantled Bill narrowly- escaped A\Teck on the rocks of the Irish Question. It was intended to apply, as the Acts of 1880 and 1894 apply, to Ireland equally with other parts of the United Kingdom. But it remained for the House of Commons to provide for expenses of procedure in Ireland out of grand jury cess. In Committee, May 11th, Mr. Healy moved the substitution of poor-rate, or the rejection of the measure. Such a substitution would have entrusted the power under the Act to the grand jury, while laying the expenses on a rate over which grand juries had no control. This, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach) ob- served, was an absurdity. " Everything in Ireland," retorted Mr. Healy, "is an absurdity." The Chancellor then intimated that as only non- contentious Bills could go forward, the House must decide between Mr. Healy's motion and the loss of the Bill. Mr. Bigwood came to the rescue with the proposal that Ireland should be omitted from the operation of the Bill. This was at once agreed to, and the Bill received the Royal Assent on August 14th, 1896. Thus it comes about that Ireland cannot protect any of her birds throughout the year. All that can be done is to extend the " Close- time " as much as possible under the 1880 Act ; and although this had been presumed to deal with breeding-season only, it has been extended for certain birds in some Irish counties to the 1st of December. While speaking of Ireland, it may be added that in 1898 a serious question arose as to the enforcement of the W.B.P. Acts by the Irish Constabulary. The trouble was caused by an existing Act (4 Wm. 4, c. 15) prohibiting the Constabulary from enforcing any Act relating to game pre- servation. Questions were asked in the House by Mr. Sydney Buxton, on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Birds and by Mr. Redmond on behalf of the Irish Game Preservation Association. To the lay mind it seemed sufficient answer that " game " and " wild birds " are two very different things, as every English magistrate is fully aware ; but in Ireland great objection was taken to giving extra powers to the Constabulary. A Bill to make the duty of the police clear was brought in by Mr. Buxton, backed by Sir T. Esmonde, Mr. Redmond, Sir Herbert Maxwell and Sir Edward Grey ; and was read a second time on June 6th, 1898. It proposed to invoke the aid of the Constabulary where the local authority desired that birds should be protected ; and its supporters pointed out that wild birds were greatly decreasing in Ireland, which had become the resort of persons prohibited from destroying them in England. Owing to Government opposition the Bill was withdrawn ; but the end was happily attained by other means, and a circular was issued in 1899 directing that the Royal Irish Constabulary should enforce the Wild Birds Protection Acts. The Act of 1896 was at first regarded mainly as a means for dealing with the surburban bird-catcher and the Sunday sportsman. The possibility it affords for prohibiting all taking of birds on Sundays (Saturdays too if a Council be so minded), for protecting birds like the Goldfinch absolutely throughout the year, and for seizing bird-catching apparatus, undoubtedly render the Act the best weapon yet forged against bird-catching. Bird-lovers should therefore be on the alert to see that it is actively put in force. The Act also furnishes the one means whereby rare birds might be saved from the collector. That it fails of both purposes is a fact that could be largely remedied were the action of County Councils decided and unanimous. Every county might well pro- tect, for example, the Goldfinch and the Linnet all the year. The cultivator would still be able to catch Linnets if he considered them destructive, but the possession of the birds, newly caught, by catcher or dealer would be illegal throughout the county. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 87 There would not be many Linnets netted if they were not saleable. Similarly, if every Council would agree to place on the schedule the names of a score of the country's rarest species, the taking or killing of these would become illegal throughout the year in Great Britain ; and police, collectors, and others concerned would know how they stood. There is no space left to deal with Bird Protection movements since 1896, highly important as they have been. Their history is recorded in the annual reports of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Four additional Acts have been added to the Statute, dealing respectively with the forfeiture of illegally taken birds, with the Pole-Trap, with Bird Protection in St. Kilda, and with the use of hooks for catching birds ; in addition to two other Acts dealing with animals generalh^ — the Animals in Captivity Act of 1899, and the Consoli- dation Act of 1911 — which aiiect birds to a limited extent. In 1908 the passing of the Plumage Importation Prohibition Bill through the House of Lords gave splendid promise of dealing trenchantly and resolutely Avith a trade that disgraces the commerce of this country. In 1899, and again in 1900, Mr. Bigwood brought forward a Bill, drafted by Mr. Montagu Sharpe, Avhich proposed to repeal existing laws in favour of an Act protecting all wild birds and their eggs from February 1st to September 1st, leaving it to County Councils to exempt species considered locally destructive or too numerous. The effect of this would be that birds in general would occupy the position now given only to those specially scheduled by Act and Order : they would be completely protected in Close-time, and their eggs would also be protected. The '' exempted " species would take the place given to-day to birds outside the schedule, that is to say, owners and occupiers of land would be free to destroy them, but unauthorized persons would not be allowed to do so. The Bill also proposed to enforce Sunday protection throughout the year in every county, and to empower the creation of sanctuaries. That Bird Protection in Great Britain is in a wholly satisfactory condition no one can suppose. Constant reports of the des- truction of rare birds, the Avholesale capture of song-birds by bird-catchers, and the apparent helplessness of the law to deal with either destruction or cruelty ; together with the prevailing ignorance and confusion in the minds of all classes as to what the law really is and what view of it individual magistrates may take : these things are patent to everyone ; while the ubiquitous plume - hunter, followed by the collector, tlireatens to exterminate, to all intents and purposes, the most brilliant and beautiful of the world's birds. It has to be remem- bered, however, that the Bird Protection movement in Britain is not yet fifty years old. The advance of public opinion within the last twenty, the last ten, even the last five years has been definite and striking. Given the united efforts of all who value bird-life, and the time should not be far distant when knowledge, common-sense, sentiment, and humanity combined, procure a sound, comprehensive, and comprehensible Act for the protection of birds. ^/CT Economic Ornithology jsr THE SEA-GULL. At a recent meeting of the Canterbury Farmers Club (October, 1911), attention Avas drawn to the agitation which is being raised in some quarters to deprive the Sea- Gull of protection, owing to the harm it is said to do to the fishing industry. Mr. Collard moved a resolution urging the con- tinued protection of the birds on the ground of their services to agriculture, adding that the damage done to the fish was, he considered much over-estimated. Mr. W. Berr}- sup- ported, saying that the gulls followed the plough in Avinter and did no end of good. The resolution was carried and it was agreed to send a copy to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and to try to get the support of the Kent County Council. The allegation of serious harm to the fisheries is hardly borne out by the annual report of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for 1909, just published. From BIBB NOTES AND NEWS. this it appears that the total quantity of fish landed in England and Wales in the year showed an increase of 5 per cent, all round in quant it}^, but that there had been a decline in value. In pelagic fish (herring, mackerel, pilchards, and sprats) the amount was half a million cwt. over that of the previous year, and above that of 1907. In deep-sea fish the quantity taken on the west coast had nearly doubled since 1905, though on the east coast it had declined. The decline in value seems to be owing to the small size of many of the fish, such as plaice. Whether the dragging up of immature fish by steam trawlers has any- thing to do with this, fishermen must decide ; it cannot be attributed to Gulls. These facts are emphasised by later and more local reports. The returns, for instance, for Devon and Cornwall for October, 1911, still tell of good catches and lower prices, so that the consumer benefitted more than the fisherman. The sea's harvest of herrings, pilchards, and sprats was especially abundant. These are precisely the kinds which the Gulls are accused of destroying to the ruin of the fishery industry, and on behalf of which the outcry has been raised in those very counties. On the East Coast the herring fishing of 1911 has beaten all records, over 800 million fish having been landed at Yarmouth and Gorleston in the autumn season to November 25th. THE STARLING. An alteration agreed to by the Middlesex County Council in respect to the protection of the Starling in that county, has occasioned an ebullition of exaggerated and, it must be added, mischievous reports and para- graphs in the newspapers evidently based on a misunderstanding of the whole matter. Middlesex and London have hitherto been the only two counties in England to protect the Starling tliroughout the year, the additional protection being given mainly to check the spurious " sport " of starling- shoots from traps. These shoots have been not indeed stopped, but checked ; and meantime there has been throughout the country a marked increase in the species. Farmers have lodged complaints of damage alleged to be done to springing corn, and the Middlesex Council has decided to remove the extra protection given. The bird will retain the ordinary Close-time protection which alone is given it in every other extra - metropolitan county. Whether the outcry against the Starling is well-founded or no, is another matter. In general, it is undoubtedly one of the best friends of the farmer, however trouble- some its depredations in the cherry-orchard. Being more numerous than the Lapwing, it accounts for the destruction of more wire- worm, leather-jackets, and chafer-grubs than any other species. Mr. Archibald, of the Yorkshire College writes, in reference to its increasing numbers : — " Luckily it is an extremely useful bird, carrying on an untiring search for grubs and insects. No one who has watched a party of Starlings feeding busily can fail to recognise the great service they render. There ib no doubt they take a little corn, biit any harm done is not worth considering in comparison Math the great benefits they confer upon agriculture." Possibly their depredations may be more marked in certain districts, and may require that the numbers of the bird should be kept down. On the other hand the Starling, far from being a strictly protected bird, has never been scheduled in Middlesex, and conse- quently no slightest hindrance has ever been placed on its destruction by occupiers of land. It might not unreasonably be supposed that this license was great enough in the case of any bird. Complaints of alleged damage, moreover, need to be investigated with impartial exactitude. Only the other day a member of a County Council gravely rose to protest on behalf of a Beekeepers' Associa- tion against the scheduling of the Bee-eater, which he described as " one of the biggest pests the beekeeper has to contend with." As the Bee-eater happens to be a rare visitor from the tropics, which has never been seen in that particular county, and has no very great fancy for bees, one can but conclude that beekeepers have a pleasant time. Another County Council was, not long since, the recipient of a memorial from fruit and other farmers protesting against the protec- tion of the Goldfinch and the Tree-Sparrow. The Goldfinch is absolutely harmless to fruit and corn ; and the Tree-Sparrow is so com- paratively scarce that its appearance is always a matter of some interest to the naturalist. We shall possibly hear next that the wander- ing Nutcrackers, unfortunately seen and accordingly shot in Bucks and Suffolk this autumn, were a danger to the cobnut crop. BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. UcT The Plumc'-TrAcle. ^' usr NATIONAL COLLECTIONS. Ml". Edmund Selous, whose earnestness in denun- ciation of the collector all Bird Protectors must admire, writes to impeach the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for holding a reception at the British Museum of Natural History. Museums, he contends, are all " so many centres of destruc- tion, all vying with each other to procure whatever is rare." " It would be wonderful, indeed, if such great crowds of carcases (some in nuptial plmiiage) set up and arranged imder the gegis of science and professorship, upheld by Government — officially stamped and approved as it were — did not strengthen and confirm in any young fellow the idea natural to his age and savage descent, that slaughter is the one end and aim of natural history, or rather that slaughter in excelsis is natural history, or, at least, seven-eighths of it." But in thus condemning " hall-marked " national collections of fauna, Mr. Selous is surely supporting the really dangerous collector. It is the institution of a national collection, under proper scientific management, which destroys at once every need for the vinregulated and unauthorised private collector whose selfish greed-and-grab jDolicy is the curse of rare-bird life. The idea that a lad visiting the collection at South Kensington could be impressed mainly, or at all, with the idea of "slaughter" is unthinkable. The specimens or representatives of live creatures there show him the wonder and beauty of animal life, teach him definite scientific facts, and suggest, by the groups of birds in their natiu'al surroundings, how infinitely charm- ing are the birds in their own proper haunts, to which he may perchance follow them and study all the marvels of instinct, intelligence, and song, which no museum can reproduce. The national and authorised possession of beautiful things shovild destroy the individualist theory of collector, bird-catcher, and plume-hunter ; and the visitor to the Natural History Museiun who brings away a desire to kill and destroy must be as brainless as the woman who, seeing these wonders of creation seriously presented for her intelligence, should wish to prostitute them to the " trimming " of her hat. MUSEUMS AND MUSEUMS. The local museum, if in its turn projaerly managed should promote not only study, but definite Bird Protection. With a curator interested in his work, and well versed in the Bird Protection law of the district (and this should be placarded permanently in the gallery), it ought to be a centre of light and leading, and the terror of bird-destroyers. Happily there are such maseums and such curators. There are also miLseums where a mouldering collection of ill-labelled remains attests the lethargy of local authorities, and museum? where a curator is accom- modating enough to buy or identify without question newly-killed rare birds that are brought to him. If it were of a neglected " bird-cemetery " or of indifferent management that Mr. Selous complained, or even of the practice of sending to museums of all kinds, parties of children without guide or teacher, — it would be more easy to imderstand his protest and to give it the sympathy which his sincerity always commands. BIRD SLAUGHTER IN ITALY. A protest has again been raised by Mr. Hubert D. Astley against the appalling slaughter of migra- tory birds which takes place every autumn in Northern Italy. The Morning Post, in a special article, gives a detailed account of the hundreds of thousands of " roccolos " or bird-slaughter- houses in the North of Italy, especially the Lake district, where the weary birds, tempted by berry- bearing trees, are trajDped in a way ' ' devilish in its ingenuity." So wanton and so cruel is the slaughter, adds the writer, that it is strange no protest should have been made against it by any Power except Switzerland. The familiar Italian excvise, that the habit of bird-catching and bird- eating is too deeply engrained in the people to be dealt with by legislation, cannot be accepted. Not only is it a deplorable excuse for any Govern- ment to employ for any evil, but the Swiss them- selves have put down the custom in Canton Ticino, where it formerly prevailed, by the help of the frontier guards, of heavy fines and of imprisonment. BIRD DESTRUCTION IN BRITAIN. The suggestion which at once comes to the British mind, is that Great Britain is the Power that ought to protest, it being Britain's accejated mission to protest against the iniquities of other peoples. But, in the first place, Britain cannot BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 93 claim to be the heaviest loser by the slaughter, as her migratory birds do not for the most part pass through Italy. She cannot therefore interfere on economic grounds against the decimation of insect- eating birds. And, in the second place, she cannot urge her own example in the way of bird-preservation. Though Britain may gradually be washing her hands, they are very far from clean at present. British people have no old-established custom of net- ting and eating small birds. We thank heaven that we are not as the Italians in these things ; our agricultural labourers, even in their hungriest days, do not seem to have deliberately set to work to devovu" the linnets and robins and thrushes and bvmtings of the countryside. But the non-hungry classes cannot now be satisfied without a sacrifice of Skylarks to the great god Epicurus ; and Quails must be netted on the spring migration to be eaten in the close season. It would seem, also, that bird- eaters on the continent benefit by oiu- complaisant view of the bird-catcher. A short time ago a correspondent forwarded to the R.S.P.B. a poul- terer's advertisement from a provincial paper, for Thrushes, Blackbirds, and other small birds " in any nimiber." Enquiry as to whether these were destined for the provincial pot-au-feu, brought this reply : — " As to the small birds we advertise for, we send them to a Firm in London. What they do with them we cannot say ; but we are under the impres- sion that they go to France for eating purposes." CATCHING AND CAGING. The vast naajority of the birds netted in England are taken, not for food, but for caging, or rather they are taken in order that such as survive may be sold into captivity. Whether this is better or worse than the slaughter for food, those interested in the matter must decide for themselves. There is at any rate no excuse (however poor a one) of poverty to be urged for caging wild birds ; and it is equally disastrous in destroying song-birds. A case was heard at Sheffield in October which illus- trates the extent of the trade and the difficulty in getting the law enforced. A dealer was summoned for having in his possession 12 Linnets and 30 Larks, recently taken. The defence was that, wild and fluttering though they were, the birds had been bought from a Rotherham dealer, who said they had been in his possession fourteen days or three weeks, and that he obtaiiied them from a man named Sly, a Lincolnshire market-gardener, whose "market-gardening" includes premises in which to " accommodate " 6,000 wild birds. The magis- trates dismissed the case on the ground that the birds were not " recently taken," because birds kept in captivity more than fourteen days had been held to be not " recently taken." " Apparently," comments Truth, " they have not yet learned that ' what the soldier said isn't evidence,' or they are so loath to interfere with this cruel industry that they jump at any excuse to enable an offender to escape the law." "RECENTLY TAKEN." The decision quoted that "recently" means in the Act a period of not more than fourteen days was, it is true, given in a court of law ; and it is one of the most extraordinary notions to which the name of legal decision has ever been given. It appears to be based on the fact that, although close- time begins on March 1st, the sale or possession of wild birds under the Act of 1880 does not become illegal until March 15th. Fourteen days' grace were given to dealers to clear out their old stock, after which time the trade in newly-taken wild birds was to be illegal. Obviously this was intended to prohibit entirely the possession of the season's wild ))irds, and to render all catching of, and trading in, wild birds illegal throughout the close-time. In the case of birds protected all the year, it should as obviously ensiu^e that the possession or sale of a bird of that year is illegal. To turn the Act round and say that at the end of every fortnight through, out the close-time of any bird, catcher and dealer may sell the birds caught in the preceding fortnight, is absolutely farcical. The framers of the Act decided, it is true, to give the dealer a fortnight's gra«e. Suppose they had decided to give him only three days. Would this have proved that a bird kept in a cage foiu: days is not " recently taken ? " THE ETHICS OF CAGING. A second Sheffield c£use resulted in the fining of two men for taking Linnets and for cruelty to the birds, with the forfeiture of their bird-catching outfit. The two prosecutions have led to a long correspondence in local newspapers on the ethics of caging. The inain line of the argvunent in defence is that the birds are happier and live longer in captivity, and that the condition of those seen at a show proves the excellence of the conditions mider which the thousands upon thousands of birds caught live and die. It is, of course, all a hopeless 94 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. argument, and proves nothing at all. Instead of going to the show, let the bird-student go to the dealer's shop, where, in filthy little cages, uncleaned for 48 hours, with foul water and little seed, Linnets and Larks gasp out their lives. " Four for lOd." " If they die we can't help it," as the Clerkenwell dealer explained in his defence. There are hundreds more to be had ; and it is perfectly easy to " accommodate" them until they can be sworn to as not " recently taken." " British birds," said the secretary of a Cage-Bird Society to the Sheffield Independent's representative, " live ' ten times as long ' in this happy captivity as when free, are doctored when ill, have food all the year round, and are sheltered from the climate." In fact, the Cage-Bird Societies have discovered that the Maker of all things committed a great mistake in creating birds to fly in the open firmanent of heaven ; and bird-catchers and dealers are enthusiastically doing their best to remedy His blunder. ' ' The bird- catcher," writes another member of the faculty, " does not for one moment contemiDlate cruelty — as in all cases where wild birds or animals are cap- tured, some cruel device has to be employed." A hundred birds may die of the cruelty or of terror or suffocation, and a hundred others find themselves on a Shoreditch street barrow, or in a Clerkenwell shop ; but if one takes a prize at a show or in a public-house " competition," is not the new humanity justified of her methods ? ENHANCING THE DISPLAY. Members of the R.S.P.B., and other bird-lovers, might well help to influence public opinion by refusing to buy from poulterers who decorate their places with the bodies of birds that are of no use as food, and from florists who keep live birds in their shop windows. The intention being, of course, to attract the public, the public must show that they are repelled. For example, an Hon. Local Secretary of the Society recently wrote to some well-known Stores to protest against the display of a Heron in the jjoultry department. The reply was that ' ' as there were a number of Herons on the market for sale, the manager thought it would somewhat enhance his display of birds that day." Gulls and Kingfishers are also sometimes used to " enhance the display." ucT ucT Books Received. ucr usr "Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador." By Lieut. -Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. (Commission of Conservation, Canada.) The striking paper pre- sented by Colonel Wood to the second annual meeting of the Commission of Conservation, Quebec, is an important contribution to the growing demand for animal sanctuaries in every land. Concerning Canada in the first place, it is of direct importance also to Great Britain, seeing that Labrador lies directly half-way between Great Britain and central Canada, and is 1,000 miles nearer London than New York is — a wilderness park of rock and plateau, lake, and river and forest, with an area of eleven Englands. Colonel Wood demonstrates the eminent suitability of this vast land for sanctuaries, and the necessity for immediate action. Here, as elsewhere, ' ' Unless we make these sanctuaries soon, we shall be infamous for ever, as the one generation which defrauded posterity of all the preservable wild life that Nature took a million years to evolve into its present beautiful perfection." Till our own day Nature could preserve her own secret and sacred places, but in the twentieth century — ' ' There is no place left where men cannot go with overwhelming force? at his command. He can strangle to death all the nobler wild-life in the world to-day. To-morrow he certainly will have done so, unless he exercises due foresight and self-control in the meantime. There is not the slightest doubt that birds and mammals are now being killed off much faster than they can breed." Wanton destruction, commercial destruction, scientific destruction : Nature is faced with all these forms — all greedy and reckless alike — -in every part of the world, from the English wood and moor to the primeval rocks of Labrador and the jimgle of New Guinea. The practical details and sugges- tions given by Colonel Wood, and his comments on the destruction of mammalian life must be studied in the pamphlet itself ; but the bearing of the subject upon Bird Protection cannot be over- looked. The Labrador Duck has become extinct already, the Eskimo Cm-lew is decreasing to danger point, and the Yellowlegs is following. Not long ago all the brooding Eiders on one islet were killed by hunters from one vessel ; in 1907 a party from an American millionaire's yacht landed on another BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 95 islet and shot sitting birds for sport, leaving the bodies to rot and the broods to perish. " Take egging as an example . . With the nineteenth century came the white-man market " eggers," systematically taking or destroying every egg in every place they visited. Halifax, Quebec and other towns were the centre of the trade . . . The game laws of Quebec distinctly state : ' It is forbidden to take nests or eggs of wild birds at any time.' But the swarms of fishermen who come up the north side of the St. Lawrence egg wherever they go . . Sometimes three, four, five, or even ten times as many, are thrown away as are kept, and all those bird-lives lost for nothing . . When we remember how many thousands of men visit the shore, and that the resident population eggs on its own account, we need not be prophets to foresee the inevitable end of all bird-life when subjected to such a drain. And tiiis is on the St. Lawrence, where there are laws and wardens and fewer fishermen. What about the Atlantic Labrador where there are no laws, no wardens, many more fishermen, and ruthless competitive egging between residents and visitors ? Of course, where people must egg or starve there is nothing more to be said. But this sort of egging is very limited. It is the utterly wanton destruction that is the real trouble." " Bulletin of the British Oknithologists' Club." (London, Witherby & Co.). The sixth of the Migration Reports issued by the Migration Com- mittee of the B.O.C., and edited by Mr. Ogilvie- Grant, is, like its predecessors, a valuable addition to exact knowledge on this subject ; and the majority of students will agree with the wisdom of the Committee in resolving to collect observa- tions for ten years before an attempt is made to generalize or argue from facts in hand. The present volume covers the autumn migration of 1909 and the spring migration of 1910, with maps and details respecting some thirty species, and summaries in the case of others ; and also records of the weather throughout the three months of the spring immigration. The average length of time of arrival covered by one species is five or six weeks ; the first to arrive was a Chiffchaf? in Somerset on March 5th, and the latest were Spotted Flycatchers at Carmarthen on the remarkably late date of June 5th. A Wryneck, seen in Cornwall on March 26th, is thought possibly to have wintered there. " Birds and Birds' Xests of Broomsgrove." By A. Mayall (London, Witherby & Co., 2/- net). In this mipretending little volume, Mr. Mayall gives not only a useful list of birds of the neighbourhood, but supplements it with over forty charming photographs, mainly of nests and eggs. Through the kindness of the writer and his publisher, two illustrations of Mr. Mayall's skill are reproduced as a frontispiece to this number of " Bird Notes and News," the one of a nesting-box, such as is supplied by the R.S.P.B., the other of a Magpie's nest. Of habitual breeding-birds, the writer names 78 ; occasional breeders, 4 (Grey and Yellow Wagtails, Pied Flycatcher, and Woodcock) ; occasional visitor 23 (including Scalvonian Grebe, Waxwing, and Lesser Woodpecker) ; and rare visitors, 33. It would have been well to add when these last-named were observed. " My Bird Love." By Isa Postgate. (London, G. Bell & Sons; Is.). This dainty little .story, daintily got up, of the friendship of two wild Robins for the writer, has the double merit of being both touching and true. It would make a pretty and appropriate Christmas gift. " Report of the Rome S.P.C.A." The first English report issued by this Society, published this year (54 Piazza di Spagna), embraces the years 1907-8-9, and shows how much excellent work, as difficult as it is needed, has been done by Mr. Leonard Hawksley and his co-workers. Among the convictions may be mentioned the dealers of forty blinded song-birds, and the vendor of twenty- six Quails blinded to act as decoys, and also the confiscation of numerous rods (for catching swallows) traps, and catapults. Talks about Birds. By Frank Firm (London. Adam & Charles Black, 63.). Mr. Finn's lively and entertaining chapters on such subjects as "Birds at School," "Birds that Keep Order," "Fagging in the Bird World," " Bir I Adven- turers," etc., seem admirably qualified to fulfil their object — that of interesting young people (perhaps old ones also) in the varied activities and characteristics of birds of many different species. Some bird-lovers may find it pathetic to read of the efforts of caged raven and crow to " play " &s an enlivenment to their imprisonment in Battersea Park, and of RedpoUs learning cage " tricks " ; but otherwise Mr. Finn's matter is as pleasant and attractive as his style, and the illustrations and get-up of the vohune are in accord with both. The Life of the Cojimon Gull, told in Photo- graps. By C Rubow (London, Witherby & Co., Is. 6d. net). Messrs. Witherby have done well to publish an English translation of this charming Danish study of the GuU, with its twenty-five admirable photographs and sympathetic letterpress. 96 BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. BIRD-FOOD IN WINTER. In response to many requests, the R.S.P.B. is this year supplying, in addition to nesting - boxes for birds, a variety of food-tables and trays for feeding the birds in winter, out of the reach of cats. Full particulars and illus- trated list can be had from the R.S.P.B. Office, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. The illustration shows the simplest of the patterns, a cheap oak-stained tray for the window-ledge, easily fixed and easily removed. All manner of scraps, bread, rice, porridge, seed of all kinds, corn, fruit, nuts, sunflower seeds, broken dog-biscuit and " melox," etc., can be provided on the tables according to the differing tastes of the guests, and during a hard frost water should also be supplied. IN THE COURTS. BiRD-CATCHiNO. -- At Dronfield (Sheffield), on October 2nd, Daniel Mather and William Clapham weie fined £2 each for cruelty to Linnets, and were ordered to pay 10s. each and forfeit their bird- catching outfit, for taking Linnets at Totley, on Sunday, September 17th. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds prosecuted. The men when stopped by the police, had 28 birds ; 17 were cranuned together in one small compartment of the cage, and one of these was dead. Defendants pleaded ignorance of the law. In order to deprive other possible offenders of this excuse, the Sheffield police have circulated a number of handbills reporting the case. — .\t Doncnster, on October 28th, William H. Cooper and Thomas Maynham were fined .5s. and 2s. fid. respectively, and costs, for taking liinnets. Maynham asked if ho could have his birds back. Supt. Hickes : If you don't go bird-catching with them. (Supt. Hickes will pcr- hajjs see that he does not do so). — At Newport (Mon.), on November 6th, William Webley was ordered to pay 5s. costs for using nets to catch Goldfinches. Samuel Hale was fined 10s. fid. for a similar offence. He said he gave up catching a fortnight ago because it was " getting hot," but as other catchers did it, he saw no reason why he should not. He had caught 47 birds in a morning, and got 15s. a dozen for cocks. James Williams was fined 2s. fid. costs for using lime to take Gold- finches. The Mayor said the Corporation had gone to a great deal of trouble in framing the Order and meant to have it carried out. — At Perth, on November 9th, William Young and Alexa.nder Prophet were fined 10s. each for snaring Linnets at Longforgan. They used a long line smeared with bu'd-lime, and had five cages of decoy-birds. Sheriff Sym said he had often given warnings against bird-catching, and it must be put a stop to. The Bikd-Shop. — At Clerkenwell, on September 22nd, George Palmer, of Upper Street, Islington, was fined 42s. for cruelty to 3fi Linnets, fi Larks, and 6 Goldfinches. The R.S.P.C.A. prosecuted and stated that the birds were in a filthy condition, with a little seed and foul water, and the cages had not been cleaned for at least 48 hours. Some of the birds were dead and others dymg. The Linnets were marked " four for lOd.," and the Larks 8d. each. P.alnver said the cages were cleaned regularly and the birds died through hav^ing a bad kind of seed. — At Nottingham on October 6th, Charles Pratt, a dealer, was fined 20s. for possession of recently-taken Goldfinches. Pratt declared that the birds were foreign ; but this was no defence, as they are protected all the year in that city. — At Brighton, on October 16th, William Rogers was summoned for possession of 76 newly-taken Linnets, birds protected all the year in that Borough. The defence that the birds were taken outside the area, was withdrawn. The Mayor said a fine of £1 for each bird was empowered, but they would make it 2d., a total of 12s. 8d. The Pole-Tr vp Act. — An effort was made at Ballymoney, on No\'ember 20th, to have the liming of trees declared an offence iinder the Pole-Trap Act. James Fines had hung a cage containing the decoy bird to the branch of a tree, and limed a twig near by. This, it was urged, was practically a trap for " catching and causing bodily mjiu-y to wild birds." After considerable argument, the magistrates dismissed the case, on tl^.e groiuid that lime did not injure birds. Bird Notes and News (issued quarterly) will be sent post free to any address for Is. per annum, payable in advance ; single numbers, 3d. To Members of the Society subscribing 53. and upwards per annum it is forwarded gratis and post free. Printed by Witherby & Co., 326, High Holborn, W.C., and published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 23, Qaeen Anne's Gate, S.W. c NO. 1. BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. -^S)fc. CONTENTS. SPRING NUMBER. 1910, Page THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, K.G. Frontispiece The Story of Bird Protection, Part I. - 1 Notes 4 The Annual Meeting— Protection of Lapwing— Clergy and the " Osprey "— Blue Birds— The Palace Pageant— The Bird Shop— Notes from Abroad. ^^^^ ^. ^ (^- -^-^L^m VOL.4 BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. The Roydl Society for tbc Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter^ 1904. Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea (;^i is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (Ss.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 SS.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; {b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining ; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. ^'^ -^^ -^^ -^^ 'W'w inr 'WW -mw ww ww -wm ww -mw ww -ww irir -^iiS *^ The Roydl Society for tbc Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. Any person interested in promoting the" objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea {£1 is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 5s.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attepd and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; (^b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. mw ^■»' ^w "W^ ^^ "WW -^^ ■^^ -^^ ■^^ "w^ -^^ -^w^-wyr •^■^ •^■w -^Ss. VOL.4 is NO. 3. BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL OF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. CONTENTS. AUTUMN NUMBER. 1910. Mr. LINLEY SAMBOURNE. Paee Mr. Linley Sarabourne and the Birds - 25 The Story of Bird Protection, Part III.- 26 The Plume Trade ' • • - - 27 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 30 Council Meeting. Bird Watching in 1910 - - - 31 Economic Ornithology - - - - - 33 Notes 34 Gulls and Fish— Nesting Boxes — In Switzerland. Bird and Tree (Arbor) Day - - 35 In the Courts - - - - - 36 ;^^|L^Lr^ ^^ ^- -^>-<^^A- I NO. 4, BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL OF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 1 ^x The Roydl Society for tbc Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea {£1 is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (^21). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 5s.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; {b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining ; Feilows and Members receive certificates of election. SJ^ ^^^^ ^0. ^> ^^ ^> ^^ ^^ ^> ^^ ^> ^*> ^*> ^^ ^^ ^^ ^H The RoyAl Society for tbc Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. \tC^^ Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and wiUing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea (£1 is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 5s.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, (a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding ^ as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one ^ shillings (21s.) ; (d) by paying a sum of Two- f pence to cover cost of registration. ^ Associates receive cards on joining ; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. > NO. 5, i:£ BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. ^^^^T- A « >^\liVi /. '/-^ tfiJ%^ W' •' ^^tSc ^ ®( isF"^ *[ r^L p^ ^? j3w. r ,.»/• 9| p^f >o^ *,- !^ Hv' CONTENTS. SPRING NUMBER. 1911. * TOUNG KESTREL: NEST AND EGGS. Page The Story of Bird Protection, Part Y. - 49 The Plume Trade - - - - SO Economic Ornithology - - - - 52 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - 63 Annual Meeting — Council Meeting- Obituary— Public School Competition— The Protection of Crops. Public School Essays - - - - 55 Notes 57 A National Sanctuary— Rare Birds In Yorkshire — Mr. L^ky amon^ the " Sentimentalists "— " Ospreys " on the Stage- Birds in the Park— The Return of the Migrants— Bird Protection Orders. In the Courts ----- 60 • / E N0.6. BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL OF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. -^G^^ CONTENTS. SUMMER NUMBER, 1911. * ***** **A The Right Hon. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. The Story of Bird Protection, Part YI. - 61 Economic Ornithology - - - - 64 Bird-and*Tree Day - - - - 63 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 68 Council Meeting — Obituary — Bird- catching. Note* 68 The Killing of Rare BIrde-The Wild- life of Britain Rational Beservatloai - Matare Study in Schoole— Our Country Lanei— The New Forest. Booka Received .... The Plume-Trade Public-SchQ(ll Esaays ... In the Courts .... The Royal Society for tbc Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1880. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea {£'\ is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (jC21). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; {b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. fl^ ^^ ^^ ^s. ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, SW. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and willing to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea (;^i is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;£^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas Us 5s.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty-one shillings (21s.) ; {b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining ; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. SC^ '^^ "w^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ "WW "^ir ■WW ^■w -w^ WW -r^ ^^w^^wH N0.7 ^ BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. I VOL.4 L NO. 8. BIRD NOTES&NEWS THE JOURNAL oF THERoYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. -^cv. CONTENTS. WINTER NUMBER. 1911. ♦ NESTS OF TIT AND MAGPIE. Page The Story of Bird Protection, Part VIII. 85 Economic Ornithology - - - - 87 The Sea-GuU— The. Starling. The Plume-Trade - - - - 89 H.H. the Queen and Aigrettes. Bird-and-Tree (Arbor) Day - - - 89 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 90 Council Meetings— Reception— Obituary —Public School Competition— Nest- ing-Boxes. Notes 92 National Collections — Museums and Museums— Bird Slaughter in Italy- Bird Destruction in Britain- Catch- ing and Caging— "Recently Taken " —The Ethics of Caging— Enhancing the Display. Books Received - - ... 91 Food Tables for Birds - - - - 96 In the Courts ..... 96 m ^"^p* ^1 ET.^^ry ^- -^^i^N^ Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, S,W. Greeting Cards for 1911^12. " GOLDIE." Specially painted by Miss MAUDE SCRIVENER, and reproduced in Colour. One Card, 3d. ; Half-dozen Cards, 1/1 ; One dozen, 2/1 ; post free. With (or without) Calendar for 1912. Copies may also be had of " CHRISTMAS CAROLLERS." Adapted from the Picture by BELLINI, and reproduced in Colour. One Card, 2d. ; One dozen Cards, 1/6. SEASONABLE "POSTCARDS, Id, each ; by post, l^d. ; Qne dozen, 1/-, post free. NEW LEAFLET. " A Thrush that Never Lived " By W. H. Hudson. With Illustration in Colour by H. Gronvold. Price Sixpence per doz. X- '^'^ ^- -^ ■**• "^^ ■**■ ■**• "^^ ■**■ -^^ '^*- -^^ "^^ ■^*' ■**■ -^X The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. FOUNDED 1889. 33, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON, S.W. Incorporated under Royal Charter, 1904. Any person interested in promoting the objects of the Society and wilh'ng to abide by the Regulations may be enrolled as follows : — FELLOW, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One guinea (;^i is.), or by com- pounding for life by a donation of Twenty guineas (;^2i). MEMBER, by subscribing an annual sum of not less than Five shillings (5s.), or by compound- ing for life by a donation of Five guineas (;^5 5s.). Fellows and Members are, after election, entitled to receive a copy of every publication issued by the Society, and to attend and vote at all General Meetings of the Society. ASSOCIATE, {a) by subscribing an annual sum of not less than One shilling (is.), or compounding as a Life Associate by payment of Twenty -one shillings (21s.) ; {b) by paying a sum of Two- pence to cover cost of registration. Associates receive cards on joining ; Fellows and Members receive certificates of election. f