Devon Bird-Watchers A model for all bird societies is provided
by the annual report of Devon Bird-watching and Preservation Society. Apart from its general excellence as a record of the collated observation of a number of skilled and affectionate bird- watchers, it contains some records that future text-booki should include. The oddest is perhaps the record of a cuckoo at Woolacombe. A parent cuckoo was seen to be engaged in what Thoreau calls the so simple operation of feeding its own youngster. It placed a caterpillar in the beak of the baby just as any normal motherly instinct would dictate The report does more than whitewash the cuckoo : it whitewashes the county of Devon. No one in future can say that it is not a noted home of the nightingale. A very thorough " nightin- gale survey " has been made in recent years ; and those who hold to the Gilbertian fallacy that a policeman's life is not a happy one may be glad to know that the survey has been helped by the Constabulary, whose night-rounds have been solaced by the unwonted music. The chief conclusions of the survey are that nightingales (and this has been a great nightingale year) arrive in Devon in large numbers," that they are steadily extending their range, that they have a preference for river valleys, and that they are peculiarly faithful to favourite haunts. On this last subject did not an observer at Christchurch many, years ago record the return of the same nightingale for seven consecutive years ? The cock would appear and sing on the same post on the same day of the year and be joined there by the hen a constant number of days later.
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