A SEA-BIRDS' SOCIETY.
In another department of natural history international co-operation is being encouraged. An ardent lover of birds is collecting a group of naturalists from this country and that in order to spread the knowledge of sea-birds. His first and special desire is to stop the destruction of birds by oil, though the association is to have wider objects. The destruction of sea-birds—and probably also of fish and other marine life— by the effusion of waste oil is worse rather than better. A great number of most pitiful examples have been reported to the R.S.P.B. and are recorded in the winter number of Bird Notes and News, which is full of news interesting to all or any bird-lovers. Guillemots, on the whole, are the worst sufferers; and nearly all of them, as indeed other sufferers, die of slow starvation. A very slight stickiness of a comparatively few feathers may so hinder the forager that it cannot sustain life. It is hoped that the League of Nations will direct its energies to the prevention of the evil. International action is necessary if the remedy is to be effective. The French are paying a good deal of attention to the subject. * * * *
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