The Fellowship of Life Our recent note about the slaughter of
migratory birds has caused the International Council for Bird
Preservation in Cambridge to send us a report prepared for them
about the situation in Malta. The report contains estimates,
achieved through a survey carried out with 14 Maltese
ornithologists, of average annual totals of birds killed on the
island: several thousand herons; up to 3,000 ducks, shot
especially on sea from boats, thousands of waders, including the
tiny little stint; a thousand owls; perhaps as many as 200,000
turtle doves; up to 15,000 swifts; up to 100,000 skylarks;
perhaps 50,000 robins; up to 300,000 thrushes; anything up to
7,000 golden orioles, one of the most beautiful birds to be seen
in Europe; more than 250,000 sparrows. . . A minimum of three
million finches are trapped every year. Birds of prey are a
favourite target; up to 1,000 migrating honey buzzards, for
example, never complete their journey. We said in our previous
note that the slaughter is much worse in