38 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



birds were invaded every year at holiday time by 

 train-loads and ship-loads of trippers with guns to 

 engage in the wholesale massacre of the birds on the 

 cliffs and the sea. Nor was it confined to the trippers 

 from London, Manchester, Birmingham, and other 

 great centres of population ; the fascination of it 

 drew men of all classes, including those who annually 

 shot (and even owned) the moors and coverts. For 

 in June and July the grouse and partridge and pheasant 

 were not yet ready for killing, and it was great fun 

 in the meantime to have a few days with the gannets, 

 terns, kittiwakes, guillemots, and other auks. It was 

 nothing to them that the birds were breeding, that 

 the result of this wholesale slaughter would be the 

 extirpation of the multitudes of sea birds which people 

 the cliffs before the century was out, since they were 

 no man's birds — only God's. 



Happily there were a few men in England who had 

 the courage to lift up their voices against this hideous 

 iniquity, who eventually succeeded in getting an 

 Act for its suppression. Thus it came about that 

 our sea birds were saved and we have them still, and 

 that we were given courage to go on and try to save 

 our land birds as well. 



And with this business we are still occupied, fight- 

 ing to save our country's bird life from destruction — 

 how strange that so long and strenuous a fight should 

 be necessary to secure such an object ! But that it 

 is a winning fight becomes more evident as the years 

 go on. There is now a public feeling on our side : 



