188 LORD LILFORD 



Houbara Bustard, &c., in Fuerteventura. The two 

 Canarian Pigeons are worth looking after, and if 

 any of the Duke's crew can effect a landing on 

 that rock off the Island of Hierro, and capture 

 some of the big lizards (Lacerta simonzi), they 

 will earn the gratitude of all naturalists. . . . 

 Hundreds of Little Auks on the Yorkshire coasts ; 

 two picked up here, and brought to me. . . .' 



To Canon Tristram. 



' Lilford : February 1, 1895. 



' I am altogether opposed to the Egg Protec- 

 tion Bill ; the attempt to protect eggs by name 

 seems to me to be utterly futile, and, possibly, 

 very mischievous. The only possible use of the 

 Bill practically would be to protect certain places 

 to which the public have free access, such as 

 certain breeding-places of Terns and other shore 

 birds. You and other distinguished ornitholo- 

 gists may have no moral doubt about the species 

 of any given egg, but would you swear to the 

 specific identity of any egg of British bird off 

 which you had not seen the parent bird fly ? I 

 certainly would not, and it is just this conscien- 



