THE DARTFORD WARBLER 241 



the guarded birds would be the first to vanish ? I 

 have seen such things — pairs of rare birds breeding 

 in private grounds, where the keepers had strict 

 orders to watch over them, and no stranger could 

 enter without being challenged, and in a little 

 while they have mysteriously disappeared. The 

 " watcher " is good enough on the exposed sea- 

 coast or island where an eye is kept on his doings, 

 and where the large number of birds in his charge 

 enables him to do a little profitable stealing and 

 still keep up an appearance of honesty. I have 

 visited most of the watched colonies, and therefore 

 know. The watchers, who were paid a pound a 

 week for guarding the nests, were not chary of their 

 hints, and I have also been told in very plain words 

 that I could have any eggs I wanted. 



It is hardly necessary to say here that the proposed 

 alteration in the law to make it protective of all 

 species will, so far as the private collector is con- 

 cerned, leave matters just as they are. 



There is really only one way out of the difficulty, — 

 one remedy for an evil which grows in spite of 

 penalties and of public opinion, — namely, a law to 

 forbid the making of collections of British birds by 

 private persons. If all that has been done in and 

 out of Parliament since 1868 to preserve our wild 



Q 



