ro THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



withdraw the protection from " Owl " and " Gull " afforded by 

 the schedule. The remarkable increase of the Black-headed 

 Gull was looked upon as a menace to fisheries, and the spread 

 in midland counties of the Little Owl found small favour 

 amongst game-preservers. Egg-collecting had become a profit- 

 able profession, and immediately restrictions were put upon the 

 taking of any particular egg, it at once went up in market 

 value. At first the professional collectors strove to get these 

 restrictions withdrawn, arguing that the only result was to cause 

 fresh enmity between the small boy and the police, but later, 

 when they realised the result on prices, little was said, for the 

 penalty in many cases was far below the market value of the 

 egg or bird. A man risked conviction, and if he was fined 

 paid cheerfully, and still made a handsome profit. The Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, aided by the Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, moved in the matter, and in 1902 a further Act was 

 passed which gave power not only to fine the offender, but 

 to confiscate his specimens. 



On preserved and private land, where the police had no 

 power to patrol, specially protected Hawks, Owls, Cuckoos and 

 Nightjars, as well as other species, continued to be " accident- 

 ally " destroyed ; what could the keeper do when they trapped 

 themselves in his snares for " vermin" ? The cruelty of the 

 pole-trap, on which the victim often hung for hours in torture, 

 rather than its destructiveness, was responsible for the humane 

 Act of 1904 which made this- form of trapping illegal, but for 

 years after it was openly defied by keepers and others simply 

 because of the difficulty of conviction of offenders on private 

 land. In the same year the operation of the Acts was extended 

 to St. Kilda, where, through the rapacity of collectors, the Fork- 

 tailed Petrel and St. Kilda Wren were in danger of extermina- 

 tion ; the inhabitants were, however, allowed to take the 

 abundant Fulmars, Gannets, Guillemots, Pufiins and Razorbills. 



