INCREASE AND DECREASE OF BIRDS IN TAY AREA 205 



The Order for the Protection of Wild Birds in Scotland 

 issued last year by Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for 

 Scotland will, I hope, do good ; but having got the power, 

 it is the duty of all who are interested in birds to do their 

 utmost to see that the orders for the preservation of our birds 

 are carried out. 



Last year the Perthshire Society of Natural Science issued 

 a letter to most of the proprietors and others in the county, 

 asking them to use their best endeavours to carry out the 

 Order, and to see that the birds named in it were protected. 

 I trust this letter may have a good effect. 



I believe, indeed I know, there are instances where 

 scheduled birds have been shot through pure ignorance. I 

 have been told of a Great Spotted Woodpecker having been 

 mistaken for a Jay (which, by the way, in the county in which 

 it was killed, is also a scheduled bird ! ). I am confident this 

 was a mistake ; but farmers, gamekeepers, gardeners, and 

 others may thus kill an unknown bird and unconsciously be 

 the means of preventing a rare species from remaining and 

 breeding in the country. I have no doubt, however, that had 

 they recognised it, and known that it was amongst those 

 scheduled, they would have spared it at least, let us hope so. 



Whilst harm may thus be unwittingly done, the most 

 serious damage is caused by amateur collectors and pro- 

 fessional egg-stealers. These folk are animated with the 

 mania of acquisition- they boast of the number of " clutches " 

 of eggs of such or such a species they possess, or they 

 simply, as the poacher does, earn their living by taking what 

 does not belong to them. They have no scruples as to 

 corrupting a gamekeeper or gillie and inducing him to shoot 

 a scheduled bird or collect a nest of forbidden eggs. This 



oo 



underhand trafficking in rare birds and their eggs is what will, 

 in the long run, exterminate some of our most interesting 

 species if a stop is not put to it. 



We saw last spring that an Osprey had been shot, and 

 the delinquent fined i. It would be interesting to know 

 how much he made out of the transaction. 1 All who are 



1 The specimen, we understand, was returned by the police to the proprietor 

 of the estate where it was shot, and a purely fictitious value has most unfortu- 

 nately been placed upon it by evidence given before the House of Commons. 

 J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



