The Oologists Record, December 1, 1923. 83 



do not suffer to the extent many people imagine. Birds will sit 

 in perfect content in their nests containing some of the young, 

 whilst other chicks, which have fallen from it, perish of hunger 

 and cold before their eyes. Cuckoos, when hatched, expel their 

 foster-brethren without protest from their foster-parents, whilst 

 migratory birds, such as Swifts, etc., desert their half-grown young 

 when instinct tells them it is time for them to migrate. Thus, the 

 collector who uses discrimination may take eggs and yet cause 

 little suffering to the parents, and certainly without any risk of 

 decreasing the number of the species. 



Even including the indiscriminate and ruthless collector, the 

 wanton schoolboy and the ignorant rustic destroyer of all nests 

 and eggs, the number of eggs taken or destroyed by man is 

 infinitesimal when compared with those destroyed by Nature. 

 On one occasion I was told by a watcher of a Ternery that he was 

 afraid the Terns were being driven away by boys who were stealing 

 the eggs. Enquiries elicited the fact that at the outside 40, say 

 50 eggs, had been so taken, but I found that all the early nests, 

 some 150 to 200, had 'been destroyed by a flood ; of the later nests 

 some 300 to 500 had been destroyed by-a later flood, whilst on the 

 very day I left the place all the nests on the flats were drowned out 

 in a gale, and I personally counted hundreds of drowned young and 

 washed-out eggs thrown up on the line of debris marking the limit 

 of the tide. 



Nor was this all the birds had had to compete against. There 

 was at least one stoat living close to th^ Ternery, rats were numerous, 

 and, in addition to stealing eggs and young, killed many old birds 

 on their nests. In this instance, therefore, where boys had stolen 

 50 eggs and bond fide collectors had, perhaps, taken 10 more, 

 Nature had destroyed at least 2,000 eggs, besides destroying young 

 and old as well. 



Few people realize how appallingly destructive Nature is, but 

 if they would only think for a few minutes it is easy to understand. 

 For instance, a pair of sparrows in a year certainly lay on an average 

 10 eggs. If all these survived, and were hatched and reared, the 

 next year there would be 50 Sparrows, the next 250, the third year 

 1,250, and in ten years we should have over 113 million Sparrows. 

 As, however. Sparrows, when once they arrive at about a year old, 

 probably average about five years more of life, only some two young 



