SAVING WILD LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23109, 6 August 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

SAVING WILD LIFE

BIRD-LOVERS in Scotland are taking steps to secure for them a sanctuary in Castle Semple Loch. The estate in which it lies, about half-way between Glasgow and Ardrossan, has been acquired by the Government for agricultural purposes, and the Scottish Society for the Protection of Wild Birds is appealing to the public to establish this important sheet of water as a reserve for wild birds. The loch is one of the few in the west of Scotland remaining in a natural condition in which aquatic birds can rest, and feed, and nest; and unless bird sanctuaries are soon created the declining number of wildfowl in Scotland will grow less and less. It is considered that there ought to be a chain of such sanctuaries in which birds will feel free from molestation from one end of Scotland to the other. Many a natural haunt has become a public water supply or even a pleasure lake, with the reeds along its border cleared away; buildings have risen on the shores and the highway along its bank has become busy owing to motor transport; waste areas have been reclaimed; and as never before human beings have invaded the solitudes which the birds alone had enjoyed. Thus a lot of things good for man have had a bad effect on the life of O)<=>o-e=>o<--~>o< —>o<=>()<=>oc

In Scotland The Bird-Lovers Are Out to Secure New Sanctuaries

the wild bird, which has also suffered if from the efficiency of the modern gun in the hands of the irresponsible and «! heartless sportsman. _ _ |l How valuable a sanctuary can be ia shown in a recent report on the Duddington Loch Sanctuary, established £ near Edinburgh twelve years ago. Not q: only does an amazing variety-of birds H resort to it for breeding, but an enorm- H oils number frequent the loch; as many |; as 1700 pochard were counted there on $ a day in January. j,l ft. Society's Aims jj The society aims at making Scotland I "the most bird-loving country in the j| world," and believes that Castle Semplo f; Loch would show splendid results as a •R, new sanctuary. T* ••• In England it is hoped that the Si Scottish Department of Agriculture will [• regard the project with favour, and that j, the lovers of wild life on both sides of I j the Tweed will support the campaign. ]■ |