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protection would surely be attained in having central and more 

 comprehensive legislation, and in allowing individuals to obtain 

 permission to defend crops or stock from depredation, as is done 

 in Central Europe. With the present Act in force, there is a 

 risk of losing one or another species of the rarer summer 

 migrants, whose increasing scarcity has been frequently com- 

 mented on of late years. These birds do not invade England 

 at a venture during the spring migration : but the birds reared 

 in a district return to it. If adverse meteorologic conditions 

 and other untoward influences combined to destroy all, or 

 nearly all, the emigrants of one autumn, there might possibly 

 be no immigrants in the following spring, and the species would 

 be in jeopardy of being lost to our isles. Moreover, if those 

 summer migrants which are abundant on the Continent, but 

 only exceptional in England, the Oriole, Hoopoe, Black Redstart, 

 Bluethroat, were preserved in earnest, there is every reason for 

 believing that they would nest with us, that their descendants 

 would return in spring and that with time we should be the 

 gainers of some beautiful and useful species. By the Medi- 

 terranean no bird is safe from being cooked. In England no 

 bird is safe from being collected. An epitaph might read : — 



Whether to fill a glass bell or a pot. 



In being stuffed each bird must find his lot. 



Legislation will come too late if it waits for a general demand 

 for it. The fullest protection should be accorded now. 



The penalties for offences under the British Act are light 

 compared with the fines and imprisonment meted out in Central 

 Europe and in the United States of America. In view of the 

 difficulty of obtaining convictions, it seems trivial to reprimand 

 for a first offence, and to fine subsequent offences five shillings, 

 or, in the case of the scheduled species, one pound. In Hungary, 

 where money is certainly no cheaper than in England, the taking 

 or selhng of eggs or young of the scheduled species is fixed up 

 to 100 crowns (£4 3s. 4d.). In America the lowest fine is five 

 dollars for the offence, and five additional dollars for each bird 

 or part of a bird. 



At home, there is a large and growing demand for the rarer 

 birds of our list as cage exhibits at shows, which entails rearing 

 nestlings by hand, with the attendant mortality. Whole broods 

 of young are taken and lost, in the attempt to rear a few to 

 maturity ; and districts have been depleted of certain species 

 through the systematic taking of their nests and fledglings by 

 professional bird-dealers. The toll levied on the commoner 

 and hardier varieties, too, the snaring of Linnets, Larks, 



