THE BAR-TAILED GODWIT AS A SOLWAY BIRD 87 



assumed full breeding plumage, but it was not noticed that 

 any separations for nesting ever took place. So far as I 

 can find out, not one was shot, nobody apparently having 

 thought of breaking the close time. 



THE PRESERVATION OF BRITISH BIRDS: 



AN APPEAL. 

 To THE Editor. 



Sir — The scope of the work of the Royal Society for the Protec- 

 tion of Birds is now generally understood, and we feel that the Society 

 has established a fair claim upon the appreciation of all persons who 

 have at heart the preservation of the beautiful and interesting avian 

 fauna of their country. 



The appeal with which we, the " Watchers' Committee " of this 

 Society, are here concerned is the protection at their breeding- 

 grounds of rare species, such as the White- tailed Eagle, Chough, 

 Bearded Tit, Kentish Plover, Stone Curlew, Dotterel, Red-necked 

 Phalarope, Pintail Duck, Roseate and other Terns, and the Great 

 Skua. 



This, the special work of the Watchers' Committee, is taken in 

 hand each spring and continued through the breeding season. It 

 is carried out by means of paid watchers, who are stationed in various 

 places, from the Island in the Shetlands where the Eagles have their 

 eyrie to the shingle flats of Dungeness, a nesting-place of the Kentish 

 Plover. In addition to this the Society contributes towards local 

 funds for promoting similar objects which may require financial aid, 

 e.g. the Fame Island Protection Fund. 



It might be supposed that in the case of some of these birds 

 their very rarity and maccessibility would prove their best protection. 

 This unfortunately is far from being so, for there are in this country 

 a certain number of collectors who under the name of British 

 Ornithologists are among the worst enemies with which British 

 Ornithology has to reckon, because it is their ceaseless endeavour 

 to obtain rare " British-taken " eggs and birds. It is a deplorable 

 ambition and traitorous to the cause of British Ornithology, but it 

 exists ; and the high prices paid for authenticated eggs and birds 

 are a direct incentive to egg-stealing and bird-taking in defiance of 

 the law for their protection. 



It is obvious, then, that the watchers employed by the Society 

 must be men of high character, and in view of their temptations it 

 is only fair that they should be well paid. A watcher receives a 

 weekly salary throughout the nesting season, is provided with a 

 badge of authority, and where necessary is supplied with field-glasses. 



