16 JANUARY 1942, Page 13

COUNTRY LIFE

A REAL victory over war has been won by that excellently practical and, one may say, poetical organisation, the International Committee for Bird Preservation. One of the keenest associated bodies was the Polish. Its leading spirit, the famous man of science, Dr. Michal Siedlicki, was done to death by the Nazis in a concentration camp, but his spirit marches on. The work of the Polish section has been temporarily taken over by the British section. The Committee has perhaps done more for the preservation of ducks and geese than for other birds, and no item of the work of investigating the migration of these birds has been more valuable than the organisation of the Orielton decoy (in Pembrokeshire) as a ringing-station; so widely and sincerely has the work there been appreciated that subscriptions were received from Finland and France at the very height of the was crises. Those who wish to see the latest report or to subscribe to am of the beneficent activities of the Committee, not least of the Orielton decoy should communicate with.Miss Barclay Smith, The Zoo, Regent's Park, N.W. 8. Incidentally, the report has a note of gratitude to The Spectator for its "continued help."