56 REV. H. N. BONAR ON THE DECREASE 
is difficult to find words to describe the vivid brillianey of 
its colouring. It is one of my greatest pleasures to watch 
its opalescent blue-green back and ruddy chestnut breast. 
No dead or stuffed kingfisher can give anyone any idea 
of the real glory of this bird. I would fain hope that, 
thanks to protective legislation, its decrease has been 
arrested. 
What is true of the slaughter of the kingfisher applies 
also to all conspicuously-coloured birds. I need not, I feel 
sure, remind the ladies of this Society of the crimes which 
are perpetrated to procure egret plumes (“ospreys,” as they 
are called in the trade); but I may take this opportunity 
of asking them to set their faces against the wearing of 
owls’ and terns’ wings (nay, sometimes even whole “dead 
birds”) in their hats. Men will commit all manner of 
cruelties so long as women are willing to pay them a good 
price for birds’ lives. 
Then I must not omit to mention the trapping of 
song-birds. Why is the Goldfinch (Carduelis elegans) so 
scarce? More careful cultivation has reduced the hedge- 
side thistle seeds, its favourite food. But that is not the 
main reason. Why is the Bullfinch (Pyrrhula europea) 
seen so seldom? Not because the bird is sometimes shot 
for damaging fruit-buds. Both these lovely birds are scarce 
because they have been trapped year after year by the 
hundred and by the thousand for cage-birds. Other cage- 
birds I might mention, had I time, but these two must 
suffice as examples. 
Only let a bird become rare enough, and the greed of 
the dealer or the collector will soon stamp it out. It is 
possible that, even while I write, the last pair or two of the 
Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) and the Kite (JMilvus 
utinus) may have been blotted out as British-breeding 
birds. Their existence in our land hangs by such a thin 
thread that, at any moment, a blundering keeper or an 
avaricious collector has it in his power to sever it. 
Take the case of the noble Osprey (Pandion haliactus), 
to which I have referred already. It is doubtful if five 
pairs of this bird now breed in Scotland; certainly, none 
of their breeding-places would exist one year longer were 
