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aroused, by the appearance in the papers of siich heartrending articles 

 as the following, whicli I do not hesitate quoting and bringing back to 

 your memory at a time like this, when so strong a feeling as I have 

 before mentioned is on foot for the purpose of getting this very wise 

 measure of protecting our sea birds reversed, for, if it were, " What 

 took place before, would take place again." The journal of Land cmd 

 Water, Aug. 29, 1868, embodying a letter in the Times, thus remarks : 

 — " No words can convey any adequate idea of the wanton, wicked 

 cruelty perpetrated by these ruthless slayers of unoffending birds. 

 Broken-winged liirds are abandoned, and drift away to perish by slow 

 degrees ; badly wounded birds are allowed to flutter and struggle 

 in the bottom of the boat, tlieir sufferings unheeded and un- 

 cared-for ; while many, fearfully hurt, manage to reach the shore 

 to die in lingering agony ; and, lamentable to say, this butchery 

 is committed for no good purpose. We find a letter in the 

 Times headed ' A Plea for the Kittiwake,' in which it is 

 remarked, ' Some months ago a contributor to a public journal of natural 

 history, writing from Lincolnshire, disclosed the fact that London and 

 provincial dealers now gave one shilling per head for every white Gull* 

 forwarded ; that one man (a stranger, dra^wai thither for profitable occu- 

 pation) boasted of havmg last year killed with his own gun at Flam- 

 borough-Head four thousand ; and that another sea-fowl shooter had an 

 order from a London house for 10,000, all for the plume trade. During 

 the present summer (that was 1868), it is added, one of the Plumassiers 

 has visited various breeding stations in Scotland, and laid his plans for 

 having supplies of birds sent to him. At Ailsa Craig he gave an order 

 for one thousand Gidls per week, and there stated that he was prepared 

 to take any quantity more. To meet this demand, the tacksman of the 

 Rock spread his nets while the birds were sitting on tlieir newly hatched 

 young, which were left in hundreds to perish on the ledges." Again, in 

 the Guardian oi 18th November 1868 the following paragraph appears : 

 — " On a strip of coast 18 miles long near Flamborough Head, 107,2.50 

 sea birds were destroyed by pleasure parties in four months — 12,000 by 

 men who shoot them for tlieir feathers to adorn women's hats, and 

 79,500 young birds died of starvation in emptied nests. Commander 

 Knocker, K.N., there stationed, who reports these facts, saw two boats 

 loaded above the gunwales with dead birds, and one party of eight guns 

 killed eleven hundred in a week. Besides these instances, it is a well- 

 known fact that the Londoners during the breeding season (for their 

 Saturday outing) used to go doAvn to the Isle of Wight for what they 



* The dealers' name for the Kittiwake in full i)lumage. 



