COUNTRY LIFE

The Grouseward Migration • The great social migration to Scotland is at least as vigorous as ever, though the sudden bout of popularity among Americans for the sport of grouse-shooting has not main- tained its volume. Of the many people who go- north by car a good number have trained their chauffeurs to be also loaders. Indeed it has not been unknown for a sportsman to excuse the driving deficiencies of his chauffeur on the ground that he was such an • admirable loader ! These migrants to the north will find good numbers of grouse. The bird has flourished both in Yorkshire and Scotland- -and in a less degree in Wales. Its proper title is Scoticus " and it is theone unique possession in our list of birds. -How should it not flourish ? Occasionally late frosts of rare severity destroy the clutches and the numbers diminish for this reason ; but in general the accounts of bad grouse years are due to the desire for excessive numbers. Over- eaftivation and protection have encouraged certain maladies ; and grouse are numerous, from an ornithologist's point of view, in the worst grouse year. Of late the art of burning" heather in strips and ensuring a young growth has undoubtedly raised the general level of population. Well-fed birds can resist disease ; and though grouse eat insects and various vegetables few birds in the list are so dependent on one host plant. The very. colours of the bird and its eggs suggest a heath-covered moor.

Which is Heather ?

it is surprising, when we consider the extent and the popularity of the plants, how very little agreement there is in common speech in the use of the words heath, heather. and ling. " Heather bells " and heather-honey " are condemned by some botanical writers. The glorious plants that carry their purple peals and set them ringing on the moors are :not in their view properly called heather at all ; so it is urged ; and almost the only flower in the group that the tongue of the bee can reach—and this Et a stretch—is the ling,- though bees have their own devices for making a short-cut. to the honey store where the orthodox passage of approach is too long for them. Those who cannot or do not journey. to Scotland have the satisfaction of knowing that the .ling, which is the most widely distributed of all these allied tribes, -is very glorious, alongside gorse and juniper on many-commons . near London. With ealluna communis spread out before them they, like the bees, can dispense with . erica einerea , or any of the five sorts of heather.

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:An Urbane Hawk

- An odd, probably a unique incident among the: birds of :London, gives an incidental illustration of occasional and • unexpected behaviour in the hawk tribe that has long puzzled me and doubtless others. Kestrels nest in.; the Victoria -Tower, Westminster, as larger hawks on the tower of Cologne

• Cathedral. One of the young appeared in the garden of Westminster Palace (as reported in a letter to the Field), and showed nO sign of wildness. It did not shrink from capture. Twice in my life—once in a Hertfordshire garden, once on the seashore, I have caught and handled a wild kestrel. In neither case did the bird show the least -fear .and there was no sign at the time or afterwards when they - flew away that the birds were ill or injured. Hawks are not the only birds of prey (if one can use the term of the beetle- .eating kestrel) that are definitely fond of towns. The brown owl rejoices in any semi-open town .and multiplies because of the urban conditions, and the carrion crow is peculiarly common in a good many suburbs. The most urban of all birds is doubtless the sparrow ; but more and more it learns the pleasure of seasonal migrations. In some counties, especially, I am told, Warwickshire, the birds . pour out of the town at harvest time and fall, like harpies, on. the wheat.

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Birds and Buds . •

Queries continue to reach me on the possibility of defending -buds from birds by the use of sprays. The device has not • yet a scientific foundation ; but is investigated. What =is known is that birds, as most animals including rats and • mice, are repelled by the chemicals usually known as Jeyes

Fluid. The addition of this to any spray will repel birds for a short period. Birds are not a serious enemy to buds except for a brief period in spring. It follows that only the sprays usable in spring are worth doctoring in this way, and since at that date buds are very sensitive, the, proportion of Jeyes must be very small. A few spoonfuls to the gallon is enough. Most of the sprays themselves have a deterrent influence. A second garden query may be answered. More and more gardeners use adco (discovered at Rothamsted in the War) to reduce their garden refuse to the state of farmyard manure. It does its work admirably; but more must not be expected of it. It will not kill insects that frequent the rubbish heap. The woodlice will be nearly if not quite as many after its use as before.

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Augustan Harvests

One advantage of the English climate can be inferred from the spectacle of the country at harvest time. Whatever the weather some fields of grain are cut early in August or in July ; and others are not ripe for a month or more. In general, though exceptions may be found, the difference of date is the result of winter and spring growing. We can, in England, sow grain (and indeed transplant trees} in most autumn, winter and spring months. Our wheats and oats yield heavily whatever deficiencies they may have in the eyes of the miller and in " strength," because the plant has had so many months in which to make root. For once in a way the weather has favoured the spring-sown rather than the winter-sown crops ; but the wheats are very much better than the gloom of the critics would suggest. The hay harvest was a catastrophe, if one may qualify a negation ; for on many farms the cut grass was not harvested. There is no such catastrophe in the glorious harvest. Given a gracious August it may be very fair in all classes of grain, except where fields at the centre of the July storms were laid so flat that the cutters and binders cannot turn out tidy sheaves and even the men with the scythes—if such exist—have some ado to cut clean. The failure of the hay is complicated (as well as compensated) by an aftermath, rapid and heavy beyond the records.

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The No-Litter Crusade A group of women's institutes were holding an original meeting on a conunon known is No Man's Land. It opened with a cricket match (in which incidentally it was held improper to run byes). It ended with a less facetious and a *holly admirable competition for special prizes. They were given to the institutes whose teams collected the greatest amount of litter in five minutes. As the meeting was held three days after Bank-Holiday and the common is not at a great distance from Cobbett's Wen, the circle of the cricket ground was smothered with rubbish, including many broken bottles. Five large sacks were full to bursting before the five minutes were over and there were some objects, including a tin bath, that were too big for the receptacles. The common- was a different place after this characteristically feminine -campaign. The prize-winners were twice blessed.

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Weeds and Litter

- This particular common is defaced every week-end in summer. The county council has adopted the anti-litter by- - law which is precise and adequate ; but this local council, like most others, is content with the virtue it practises in the council chamber. There is never so much as a suggestion that the law should be administered. • Objections• have been raised to the camping of gipsies on the commons ; - but their offences pale before the picnicker's carelessness and callousness. The refusal to administer the anti-litter by-law is exactly of the same sort as the refusal to administer the Noxious Weeds Act. You may sprinkle the commons with broken glass, old tins, cartons and paper as freely as you may sow your neighbour's fields with ragwort and thistle-seed or eat his crops with your . excessive population of rabbits.. On request I was •sent some admirable-posters forbidding the litter nuisance ; but I- have failed to find any of the sort displayed on any Nulnerable site.

W. BEACII THOMAS.