PROTECTION OF BIRD LIFE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 December 1933, Page 9

PROTECTION OF BIRD LIFE

APPEAL BV THE POET LAUREATE

A moving plea on behalf of the protection of the bird life of this country was made bv the Poet Laureate, Mr John Masefield. LLP., when he performed the opening ceremony of the gateway which has been erected at the entrance, of the Hawksmoor Nature Reserve in memory of its founder, tlio late Mr John Richard Beech Masefield, of Cheadle a great bird lover, and cousin of the Poet Laureate (reports an English paper) There was a large and distinguished company present at the opening ceremony, at which high tributes were paid'to the late Mr Masefield's work, and the Poet Laureate made a speech vigorously condemning those who despoil the countryside and particularly referring to the caging of wild birds. Mr Masefield, who was accompanied by his wife, in the course of lus speech, said : —You have done me a great honour bv asking me to come here to open this gateway which has been set up as a memorial to my kinsman, the late John Richard Beech Masefield. He, as yen know, was a great lover of birds, and was largely responsible . for the creation of this sanctuary in which wild birds, animals and flowers can exist unharassed by the major devilries of man. He was a great lover of birds. A bird was to him, as it was to William Blake, a whole world of delight, and in this gathering to his memory I should like to say a few words about some of the dangers which threaten bird life in this country —dangers which my kinsman had very much at heart —and which afflicted him because they afflicted tile birds be loved so well. We have seen a great growth in this country of masses of hideous buildings which we miscall cities, and, as a consequence, hordes of men and women who have t-o live in these cities are shut away from Nature ,are starved of Nature and hardly know what natuie is. In the last generation of men machines have made it possible for these Nature-starved people to flood into the country, and, like little children when marvellous toys are placed before them for the first time, they pillage an Id sack and defile and de-flower Nature hardly knowing what it is they do. As a consequence it lias become necessary to have a Society for the Preservation of Rural England; to preserve rural England for those who mind and love it more than they expected.

SANCTUARIES NECESSARY I suppose in course of time, this nation may become a user of rural England, and when that happy day comes, I have no doubt that rural England will be preserved as in the days of our fathers. Until that day comes along, sanctuaries are very necessary, as when the cities began to become big, arms of precision became possible and also cheap. As a consequence, every parish in this kingdom lias at least one shooter who will blast into eternity every strange and beautiful bird that happens to come his way. Among these multitudes of distorted minds always in the world there are many who collect birds’ eggs. I am not speaking now of the boy. He, at any rate, dares the keeper and risks his bones. But these people bribe the keeper and pay the thief. Then, in addition to these worthies, or unworthies, there are many who collect dead birds, stuff and put them in glass eases, and arc proud to have a lot of dead birds, looking moth-eaten and miserable, round their rooms. Owing to these people’s way of going on, many kinds of rare birds are becoming rarer, and a great many of these collectors are only too glad that they should he rare. They would be only too proud that they should become extinct, and their specimens immediately become worth more money than they are to-day.

WANT OF THOUGHT These are some of the enemies that threaten wild bird life in this country, but there are others. I am reminded that evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart, and there arc many thoughtless people in this country who help to exterminate or rather make rare many charming birds that would otherwise bo common. There are many people who need something to love, and they will buy British wild birds in cages and keep them in cages as pets, and spend on these poor things a great deal of very real affection and imagine they are being kind to them. They do not realise what they are doing to the unfortunate birds.

But you must remember that mankind will always find a name for some atrocity or any evil thing they like to do. They call slavery “helping tho negro from his moral degradation,” and another name was “training Creation’s backward children in habits of industry.” You can always find a line phrase to cover a devilish thing. Do not think private sinners are the only sinners; they are not. There are public sinners, and, because wc support them, we are sinners too. We all support public zoological gardens in which great wild birds are kept in everlasting prison unable to move their wings. Think what it means for a bird accustomed to fly upwards for a thousand feet to be unable to fly or move his wings again until lie dies.

Only the other week there was a big cage bird show not very far from here, when a man who is well known said, or is reported to have said: “I would like to see a cage bird association in every county of England. I have seen birds in the wild stale and I have no reason to think they are happier in that state, and they certainly live longer in cages.” Two pages away from that statement in the same journal there was a letter to ask: Why do they die?” and a correspondent wrote to say that cage birds so often died because they did not get sufficient exercise.

CAGED BRITISH BIRDS Mr Masefield proceeded to quote passages from a report of another similar show, in which a thrush was described as being “as steady as a rock,” and he observed: “Fancy the hopping thrush, which delights in free movement, being as steady as a rock”! lie said there were a great many British birds. These poor tilings must have been netted or limed or caught in cages after having known the freedom of the air, and the people who catch these birds and keep them arc known as “fanciers.”

Mr Masefield further quoted a remarkin a fancier’s publication that “the wren should not be put into a large

'cage at the beginning; one about a foot long is quite large enough. This, Mr Masefield remarked, of the htLe wren, one of the exquisite miracles of bird life it is so enchanting to watch. Mr Masefield also quoted from advertisements of cages, and proceeded. Early next month, a great lover of birds, a great story teller, and a great hearted man, to whom we are all indebted for many happy hours, Colonel John Buchan, will sponsor in Parliament the Protection of Birds Bill, which, if it becomes law, will help to release all British wild birds from the misery of imprisonment in cages, so lot us wish Colonel Buchan all success. Now let us have grateful thoughts of my late kinsman, who was a pioneer in caring for wild birds, who wrote of them and endeavoured to foster the love of them many years ago, when hardly anybody was doing so, and who caused to be made this wild and beautiful home for them. It is now my great privilege to open : these door, and to say, as the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren says of St. Paul’s if you ask a memorial of him, look about you. Mr Masefield then unlocked and opened the gates.