INTRODUCTION 35 



the smaller birds have been ruthlessly depleted by 

 the gunner and the snarer; and we can name 

 localities where such species as Goldfinches, Bull- 

 finches, Hawfinches, Wood Larks, Nuthatches, and 

 Kingfishers are either altogether exterminated or 

 fast becoming so. Certain intelligently framed 

 Amendments to the Acts for the Preservation 

 of Wild Birds, and the establishment of proper 

 machinery for the enforcement of the existing law, 

 should remedy the evil. The wholesale destruction 

 of the nests and eggs of the smaller birds that goes 

 on in most country districts must have a most 

 injurious effect upon the species, and is even worse 

 than the destruction of the birds themselves. Eggs 

 to some extent are now protected, but the law in 

 most places is utterly ignored. 



A few words here seem appropriate upon the 

 practice of shooting those odd birds that accidentally 

 visit our islands from time to time. Now, of the 

 four hundred or so of avine species which comprise 

 what is popularly known as the "list of British 

 birds," nearly one half are practically abnormal 

 visitors to our shores, lost and stray individuals, as 

 a rule, far from their proper area of distribution, 

 and doomed sooner or later to " die without issue." 

 Without in any way being understood to counten- 



