BIRD-LIMING.

Forest and Bird, Issue 30, 1 August 1933, Page 11

BIRD-LIMING.

Everything, no matter how good the intentions are, will be abused by some. Thus the growing regard for birds in New Zealand is being taken, advantage of by bird dealers to sell birds. In nine cases out of ten these are captured with the aid of birdlime, which causes deaths of many other birds besides those which are taken and compelled to give up their life of freedom and liberty for prison confinement. The following article, appearing in the English Weekly Times, expresses Dr. Axel Munthe’s views on the cruelty of caging birds. It will be remembered that this eminent Doctor was mainly instrumental in getting the Italian Government to make Capri Island a sanctuary. This is a resting place for vast numbers of migratory birds which were much persecuted prior to Signor Mussolini’s intervention. Dr. Axel Munthe, in a letter to The Times, writes: — it too much to ask you, Sir, to be allowed to send a word of thanks through your paper to the great number of English birdlovers, who have been writing to me by every day’s post, ever since Lord Howard’s letter to The Times about Capri being declared a bird sanctuary? It is not possible for me in my crippled condition to answer personally all these letters, but I feel ashamed to remain silent when so many kind men, women, and children come forth to say that they rejoice with me in the generous and courageous response the Italian Government has given to my humble appeal for clemency on behalf of the migratory birds of Capri. I well knew that England was the country of bird-lovers, but I did not know that I had so many friends among them. Yes, well may they rejoice, for if all goes well this measure means the opening of a new era for bird protection in Italy. As I am writing this, a little blackcap is singing under my window at the top of his voice “La Giovinezza,” the Fascist hymn:— Giovinezza, Giovinezza, Primavera di bellezza, II fascismo e la salvezza Della nostra liberta.

Has, then, the rumour of the new decree already been broadcast among you blackcaps and made you cancel your scheduled long-distance flight across the Mediterranean ? CONFUSING THE SEASONS. But really you have no business to be serenading Mussolini this time of the year on this island, little blackcapped Fascist! Do not believe a word the violets and the anemones and the cyclamen say; they are always mixing up the seasons, always forgetting that winter has come. Do stay with me as long as you can; sing to me of spring, and make me, too, forget that winter has come! I well know you will soon be off, by command of your Maker, to sing, to fight, to woo, to win, to love, to mate, and to rear your young. You have also, I know, to fulfil your engagement for the opening of the grand opera season, under the patronage of Almighty God, in every English garden, with subdued nightingale rehearsals at dawn among the rhododendrons under a bedroom window, and gala open-air performances the whole day long, with all the leading stars of the company. Then there are to be popular promenade concerts every evening

for the lonely wanderer in the forest among friendly trees, with solos of a belated blackbird singing his ballad late in the night. Then there are to be matinees on all the commons, where the greatest lyric poet of all time will sing Nature’s glorious morning hymn to the rising sun. Quivering on invisible wings high overhead, his body so small that a child could clasp it in his hand, and yet his immortal voice is strong enough to fill the whole sky with gladness and every human heart with gratitude.

Do you know where I saw him last, the sky-born God’s Messenger, the sun-worshipper? He was beating his wings against the steel bars of his prison, no bigger than a mouse-trap. His head was drooping, his eyes were half closed in the agony of terror, one of his tiny feet was almost torn off by the string of the snare. Was this, then, to be your reward for all the joy you had given to us, little songster? What offence against the

laws of God or man had you committed to be condemned to prison for life like a dangerous criminal? A HUMILIATING INDICTMENT. “Skylark, six bob! Handsome present for a child. Skylark, six shillings!” Yes, you had better go there yourself, to “Club Row” bird market any Sunday morning—Sunday of all days! Go there and read with eyes filled with shame and anger this humiliating indictment against the most civilised city in the world, this damning evidence in the hands of a coming enlightened generation that after all we of to-day were but cruel barbarians. “Skylark, six bob! Handsome present for a child. Skylark, six shillings!” You may call it a small matter ; you are mistaken, it is a grave matter. The smaller the victim, the greater the crime. What is the use of your preaching the gospel of St. Francis to other nations, less conscious than we of man’s responsibility towards the animal world, as long as there is a “Club Row” in every big English town? What is the good of us wishing Godspeed to your migratory birds on their perilous homeward flight, as long as there is a cage with an imprisoned bird in so many an English nursery? When is this ignoble slave traffic of catching and selling wild birds to cease? Have your legislators forgotten your proud record as the freest country in the world? Or why, then, do they not set your captive wild birds free?