Cruelty to Birds 209 



" A native caught lurking about with a gun near a 

 ' herony ' in the suburbs of the city was severely bam- 

 booed, and had his gun confiscated by the mandarins. 



" I asked the man who told me, whether that 

 would protect the birds. He said, ' No, we wait for 

 them outside ; ' and added, with a chuckle, ' They 

 must come out to feed sometimes.' 



" Of course here we cannot do anything in the 

 matter, and it is doubtful whether the new Game 

 Preservation Society started in Shanghai to prevent 

 the export of pheasants' skins, and which I under- 

 stand intends to include all feathers in its field of 

 work, will be able to do much good. 



" It is to the civilised world that one must look, 

 and I fear look in vain, for help ! " 



The hoopoe I have already written a good deal 

 about. It raises one's ire to know that these birds 

 endeavour year by year to find a summer residence in 

 England, and that year by year they are shot on their 

 arrival. 



Mr. Kearton has given an account of the persistent 

 persecution of the red-necked phalarope, an uncommon 

 and very dainty little bird of the wader family, which 

 breeds in the far north of the British Isles. 



The phalarope's eggs are taken as soon as they are 

 laid, to enrich the purses of the peasant inhabitants, to 

 whom the money is supplied by egg-collectors ; and 

 hundreds of sea-birds' eggs are spirited away to meet 

 the same demand. I don't think that boys ought to 

 be allowed to collect eggs merely as a passing whim 

 or fashion. 



o 



