Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1921) 9 



the various species which still nest there in large numbers, it 

 has the result of delaying^ the nesting- period and turning the 

 young out at the end of the close season when still unable to 

 escape the guns of the " sportsmen." I have seen in early 

 autumn a boat load of immature kittiwakes and other gulls 

 brought in at Flamborough ; I have seen young loafers, men 

 with money no doubt, lounging about the jetty at Knott End 

 and shooting at every unfortunate young gull or other bird 

 which ventured within range. *' Would you stop the poor 

 man's sport? " is a common cry; yes, and the rich man's too 

 if he is endangering the existence of a national asset. 



What happened with the Bill of 1872 is this : it was made 

 too all-embracing to be functionable. After a British Asso- 

 ciation Close-time Committee had carefully considered all 

 points, the Bill was framed and passed without consulting any 

 real ornithologists. Newton, wTiting to his brother, says : — 

 " Mr. Herbert, on the 21st of June last, laid a cuckoo's egg 

 in the carefully built nest of the British Association Com- 

 mittee, and the produce is a useless monster — the wonder alike 

 of the learned and the layman, and an awful warning as an 

 example of amateur legislation.""^ 



In order that the sentimentalist might be propitiated such 

 birds as robin and dun nock received protection, and a small 

 fine, which included costs, was imposed for an ofTence against 

 common birds and those which were threatened with extinc- 

 tion. The collector smiled, took the risk, and if caught cheer- 

 fully paid, knowing well that such fine was a minute discount 

 off the price which he could obtain. So, in a few vears the 

 Act died, and the better framed Act of 1880 was passed, but 

 its scheduled birds were not sufficiently protected, and in a 

 few years so many amended clauses were added that it became 

 necessarv to describe the measure as '"the Acts " ; no one but 

 the lawyer was any the wiser or better off, and few lawyers 

 found it worth while to study the complicated problem. Until 

 protective legislation is framed by scientific, unbiassed 

 students of bird life, who ignore the plea of the sentimentalist 

 and weigh with caution the enthusiasm of the economist, the 

 depletion of bird life, that is of the species we most wish to 

 preserve, wnll continue. 



The law has failed to reach and check the depredations of 

 one class of criminal (it is justifiable to use the term for any 

 law-breaker), the greedy collector and his agents, those who 

 supply him. The professional collector, the man who trades 



* Wollaston. Op. cit. 



