BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



the one offender through indifference, and some- 

 times from love of tormenting ; in the case of 

 the other for the reason that torment is insepar- 

 able from the methods employed in the catching, 

 transit, and sale of wild birds. The persecution 

 of the Lapwing and the wholesale destruction of 

 Larks are also points worth attention. 



Thirdly, the trader and the feathered woman, 

 jointly responsible for the devastation wrought 

 among the loveliest birds of all lands. 



Fourthly, the gamekeeper, responsible for the 

 extinction or extreme rarity of most of cur large 

 birds, especially predatory species and un- 

 common visitors. 



Fifthly, the private collector, who finishes the 

 work begun by gamekeeper and plume-hunter : 

 his " hobby " causing him to pay especial 

 attention to species already reduced to rarity. 



Each of these classes requires, to some extent, 

 a different treatment. 



III. What the Society is doing. 



Class i. Education, not only humane 

 education as such, but the development in 

 every child of an intelligent delight in wild life, 

 must take into account the destruction arising 

 out of ignorance. This is being dealt with 

 more or less by nature-study and the use of 

 humane reading-books in schools. The Society 

 issues Educational Leaflets, and has introduced 

 Bird and Tree (Arbor) Day Competitions (now 

 established in six counties), which endeavour, 

 it is to be hoped with success, to strengthen 

 the work of teachers, and to impart a wholly 

 new enthusiasm and reality into the study of 

 natural life. 



Class 3. Pending national and international 

 legislation, the Society has from the first appealed, 

 and must still continue to appeal, to the better 

 sense and better taste of women, setting plainly 

 before them the cruelty and waste of life for 

 which they are answerable, and exposing the 

 frauds by which the trade seeks to sell its wares. 

 These frauds are in themselves testimony to the 

 power with which the Society's work has told in 

 making many women unwilling, at least avowedly, 

 to buy " osprey " and other plumes. In 1899 

 the efforts of the Society resulted in the issue of 



an Army order approving the substitution of 

 ostrich for osprey plumes in the head-dress of 

 officers in certain regiments. "Osprey" plumes 

 had previously been discarded on the ground of 

 humanity by the Viceroy of India's Bodyguard. 

 The Edict of the Government of India in 1902 

 against the exportation of bird skins and feathers 

 is another token of progress. 



Class 4. The interest of landowners in the 

 preservation of England's birds is essential to 

 the success of efforts to overcome the prejudices 

 of the gamekeeper. In response to 5000 appeals 

 to landowners, sent out by the Society in 1893, 

 much sympathy in the Society's work was ex- 

 cited, and numberless personal letters, having 

 the same purpose, are written with good results 

 every year. After years of uphill work the 

 Society obtained in 1904 an Act of Parliament 

 making the use of the cruel pole-trap illegal. 



Classes 2 and 5. Here the remedy lies 

 largely in increased pressure from that public 

 opinion which it has been the aim of the Society 

 for fifteen years to develope and strengthen. 

 When it is considered an unnatural and un- 

 desirable thing to cage winged creatures, and to 

 kill for the tables of those who are not hungry 

 beings whose small bodies provide no sustenance, 

 and when the nation is sufficiently enlightened 

 to resent the injury done to the community 

 by the bird-catcher, bird-catching will die out 

 for lack of encouragement. When it is regarded 

 as a shameful and despicable thing to kill and 

 possess the stuffed remains, or the egg, of a 

 vanishing species, the private collector will 

 probably cease to exist. Public opinion must, 

 however, be expressed by definite laws and 

 penalties as well as by indefinite influence, if it 

 is to be effectual. 



In 1889, when the Society for the Protection 

 of Birds was formed, the only protection given 

 to wild birds was that of a general Close Time 

 under the Act of 1880. Since 1889 the Society 

 has been instrumental in obtaining, through the 

 help of its members in both Houses of Parlia- 

 ment, the Bird Protection Acts of 1894, 1896, 

 1901, and the two Acts of 1904. In 1S89 there 

 was no protection whatever for any bird during 

 eight months of the year: no amount of cruelty 



