ISLAND SANCTUARIES.
The island sanctuaries in Britain slowly multiply. I hear wonderful stories of a private sanctuary, dedicated by a man of business, in the Orkneys. Some of the most charming and original observations on birds are still being made by the owner of Skokum off Milford Harbour. He is adding to the delightful sum of information in his book with a series of articles in the little green quarterly, The Countryman, in the latest number of which he finds himself next Sir Austen Chamberlain, and one does for the animals, of his island
what the other does for the plants of his rock garden. Many islands are virtual sanctuaries, such as Lundy (beloved of- puffins) and the Fame islands, marvellous for most gulls. Scott Head, in Tennyson's and Catullus' phrase, is "almost island" and a marvellous sanctuary. But island sanctuaries: are not enough : the nations and indeed the continent must co-operate ; and some of us nurse the present hope that the Egyptian Government, which has begun by financing a classic book on its birds, will presently cement the African-European solidarity by its defence of the quail. May they enter into friendly rivalry with Mussolini, for the unhappy quail are attacked as ruinously in Italian as in Egyptian Africa
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