"BIRD MONTH."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20958, 22 August 1931, Page 4 (Supplement)

"BIRD MONTH."

::: All through New Zealand August is being observed as ®' rt | ::: Month," and our special pa,ge to-day represents the effort or ::: members of the HERALD Circles to draw attention to the beauty ::: and interest of bird-life. . :!: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals looks Hi after the interests of our four-footed friends, but for " a long ii: while nobody took any special interest in our beautiful native 111 birds. Then the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society was formed, and it has done splendid work in drawing public attention 111 to the need for preserving what remains of this country's once ::l abundant bird-life. With the felling of forests and draining of ::: swamps much of the food supply of our little feathered friends 111 has vanished, while imported pests, such as the stoat and weasel, ::: have taken fearful toll of bird-life. ::: But, happily, there are signs of awakening interest in our 11= beautiful and unique bird-life, and children to-day are being 111 taught the folly and cruelty of practices such as bird's nesting, 111 egg collecting* trapping and caging of song-birds, that passed ::: unnoticed a generation ago. . = Our page to-day bears eloquent proof of the interest that 111 girls and boys to-day are taking in bird-life. Practically all the iH sketches and stories are original, and, in addition to those pubill lished, 1 have at least five times as many crowded out for want HI of space. These will be used from time to time, for *' bird--1;| month " need not be confined to August or any other month. =|| Let it be " bird-month " from January to December so far as jj:f you arc concerned, and let every reader of this page do his HI or her best to show kindness to our beautiful and interesting E:5 birds, recognising the good they do in the destruction of insect Hi pests and blights, as well as the beauty and joy they add to our : daily life. ; li? How dull, how strangely silent, would be a world in which ii: there had never sounded a note of golden bird-song; how lifeless 111 the sea-shore and empty tlr* in which one never caught IV: the glint of soaring wing!