25 FEBRUARY 1928, Page 13

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LOCAL BIRD PROTECTION.

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At last one good result has issued from the surrender of the Bird Protection Bill last session. Once again the chief local paper in most counties has a column or two in it containing the lists of birds protected in this place and that, at this date and that. The very names are attractiVe,and,,a good many local schoolmasters begin to use these liats as an occasion for a word on -the. charm and use of birds. • And the resulti -are apparent : birds'-nesting and bird-trapping are less ruthless than they were, though the offences remain many and serious: On the question of names—the hedge sparrow is dutifrill$r celled the hedge accentor—a word that no English child will ever use It is worse even than sparroW for this ingEst in- sparrowlike bird. Will not the county officials jOin the increasing throng of naturalists who begintO call the bird the dunnock, a good native word still popular. throughout some districts ?

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