242 BIRDS AND MAN 



birds — not merely the common abundant species, 

 which are not regarded by collectors, but all species — 

 is not to be so much labour wasted, such a law must 

 sooner or later be made. It will not be denied by 

 any private collector, whether he clings to the old 

 delusion that it is to the advantage of science that 

 he should have cabinets full of " British killed " 

 specimens or not, — it will not be denied that the 

 drain on our wild bird life caused by collecting is a 

 constantly increasing one, and that no fresh legisla- 

 tion on the lines of previous bird protection Acts 

 can arrest or diminish that drain. Thirty years 

 ago, when the first Act was passed, which prohibited 

 the slaughter of sea-birds during the breeding 

 season, the drain on the bird life which is valued by 

 collectors was far less than it is now ; not only 

 because there are a dozen or more collectors now 

 where there was one in the sixties, but also because 

 the business of collecting has been developed and 

 brought to perfection. All the localities in which 

 the rare resident species may be looked for are known, 

 while the collectors all over the country are in touch 

 with each other, and have a system of exchanges as 

 complete as it is deadly to the birds. Then there is 

 the money element ; bird-collecting is not only the 

 hobby of hundreds of persons of moderate means and 



