146 THE BIRD WATCHER 
the Philistine wo A which procured them than 
pleasure in the poor lifeless imitation for the sake of 
which it is perpetrated, and will be perpetrated, over 
and over again, for wretched little fusty museums 
in thousands of provincial towns, who must all take 
this as their model. Some years ago—three or four, 
I think—a gentleman, commissioned to supply one of 
these, visited Iceland in the breeding time. Though, 
by the laws of the country, the birds and eggs, at 
this season, are most strictly preserved, yet he 
persuaded one of the magistrates to override these 
laws and give him a permit for the procuring of 
specimens, with over three hundred of which—young 
and old, nests, eggs, and everything, he returned 
to England. I commend the account of this matter 
to the notice of the Society for the Protection of 
Birds, and earnestly hope that, by communicating 
with the Icelandic—or Danish-—Government they 
may be able to prevent the threatened repetition—for 
it was threatened in the account itself—of a thing 
so horrible. It does not seem altogether impossible 
that the magistrate in question, by allowing himself 
to be persuaded into granting such permission, 
committed an illegal act, for which, had it been 
known, he would have incurred the just rebuke of 
those in authority over him. If so, it should not be 
difficult to nip in its poisonous bud an abuse which, 
if unchecked, will make Iceland a paradise, not of 
birds for ever, but of bird shooters and stuffers for a 
few years only. 
