3 NOVEMBER 1939, Page 15

Bird Cards

It is becoming the special habit of those connected with the preservation of birds to increase their funds for their laudable purposes by issuing a Christmas card. The British Trust for Ornithology has now followed the example of the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds and the Norfolk Naturalists' Trust, which earned a good proportion of the money needed to buy its smallest (and snuggest) sanctuary in this way. If you prefer a coloured presentation of the Wheatear you will write to the Norfolk Naturalists' Trust, at Surrey Street, Norwich. If you prefer a Woodcock with young you will write to the Trust at the London Zoo. It is, I think, remarkable how many of our best artists have begun to delight in the bird as their source of inspiration ; and how much real imagination may be evoked by the bird in its native haunt, its native freedom, has been abundantly proved, most persuasively perhaps in the pictures of Mr. Peter Scott.