5© The Scottish Naturalist. 



condition of the new-born young, their growth and first essays at 

 independent flight — these are events in the natural history of the 

 bird, no less interesting or important to the ornithologist than its 

 anatomy, its distribution, or any other of the chapters in its life- 

 history. But in addition to their interest to the ornithologist, 

 these events have ever possessed a special charm and interest for 

 the young of all ranks of life. The beauty of the nest, and the 

 beauty of form and colour of the egg, accompanied, too, by the 

 novelty of finding such a treasure, combine to present a tempta- 

 tion to the finder too strong for any schoolboy to resist. The 

 desire of possessing coloured and shining objects, which he pos- 

 sesses in common with the savage, whose adult condition of 

 mind he represents, leads to the destruction by him of a vast 

 number of eggs and nests ; for the youth, having taken the prize, 

 speedily tires of his acquisition, and the eggs are soon broken, and 

 new " sensations " sought for. 



Most people will agree that such wanton destruction is to be 

 deplored; but for ages birds' -nesting has been the schoolboy's 

 licence, and while most parents disapprove of it, few go the length 

 of absolutely prohibiting it — still fewer use it as a means of im- 

 parting that pleasing knowledge of the natural history of birds 

 which would soonest cure the propensity, and teach the youth 

 at once humanity and zoology. That some efficient protection 

 should be given to eggs and nests is the unanimous feeling of 

 naturalists. 



At present, the parent birds themselves are protected during 

 the season of nesting by a somewhat imperfect — but still, as far as 

 it goes, a very beneficent — Act of Parliament; but it need hardly 

 be pointed out that if a female bird is not allowed to rear any 

 young, the chances against it (personally or by its oftspring) 

 surviving the winter, or, if it is a migratory bird, of returning in 

 the following spring, are increased by as many times more as the 

 number of young it might be supposed to rear; and in this way 

 persistent and injudicious birds'-nesting may soon diminish the 

 number of birds in a given area. And that birds'-nesting has this 

 effect will not be doubted by any one whose study of the subject 

 has led him to remark the diminution of small and rare birds in 

 particular districts, or by one who has had opportunities of know- 

 ing what immense numbers of birds' eggs are annually destroyed 

 by marauding youths. 



There are always at work enougli of causes — some natural, 

 some artificial — wliich are not preventible, tending to diminish 



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