BIRD PROTECTION BILL 191 



To Lieut. -Colonel Howard Irloy. 



1 Lilford : February 21, 1895. 



' It is absurd to protect game eggs all over 

 the country, and in my opinion still more 

 ridiculous to attempt to protect them by name. 

 The only possible good of this Act is to protect 

 eggs of birds that breed in commons or public 

 grounds, shores, coasts, &c. To pass an order 

 to protect birds on private property is an un- 

 warrantable interference. I am very clear about 

 what ought to be done in such counties as ours 

 for instance, i.e. to leave the Bill entirely alone. 

 The utter futility of protecting eggs by name is 

 obvious, as I do not believe one County Coun- 

 cillor or beak in five hundred would know the 

 egg of a house-sparrow from that of any other 

 small bird, and I am quite certain that no honest 

 " birdy man " would swear to any egg without 

 seeing the parent bird leave it ; moral convic- 

 tion is one thing, but an oath to any statement 

 is another. 



I have two supposed Briinnich's Guillemot 

 here, one of them the Scarborough bird ex- 

 hibited by Harting to Linnaean Society, and 

 the other the Cambridge specimen belonging 



