NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD 



to be murdered and otherwise persecuted. But ! you 

 exclaim, we in South Africa have placed the majority 

 of our birds under the protection of the law ! Yes, so 

 we have in some districts, but does the law afford them 

 any protection ? Is there any special machinery for 

 the enforcement of the law ? Are there special police 

 whose duty it is to see that our feathered friends get 

 the protection to which they are entitled ? No ! 

 little or no effort is made to enforce the laws. The 

 average policeman does not know one bird from 

 another, and he cares less. 



How blind we are. How stupidly short-sighted. 

 If a man shoots a hare or a buck out of season, the 

 sleuths of the law are keen on his track, and sooner 

 or later run him to earth. Yet these animals are 

 vermin. Let a man shoot a hare or a buck in the 

 close season. What occurs ? His neighbours at 

 once raise a howl of indignation, and clamour furiously 

 for the police to prosecute him. Those same people 

 give their sons air-guns or shot-guns and applaud them 

 when they shoot our bird allies. They encourage them 

 to make collections of birds' eggs. They take no 

 measures to prevent Kafir umfaans on their farms and 

 estates from taking the plump young birds from their 

 nests and eating them. This latter practice is general 

 throughout South Africa. I know from twenty years' 

 experience as a field naturalist. 



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