Robbery from Nature 29 



ferent migrants are come ; the time of nest-building 

 having peculiar attractions. If strange eggs are dis- 

 covered, it is generally possible to entrap the dam 

 with a noose of horsehair placed over the nest, and 

 the eminent ornithologist already quoted is strong on 

 the advantage of securing females. ' Bird-life is too 

 beautiful a thing to destroy to no purpose/ he says, 

 and then, after quoting ' Not a sparrow falleth to the 

 ground without His notice,' he proceeds in the next 

 sentence, ' I should not neglect to speak particularly 

 of the care to be taken to secure full suites of females,' 

 and shows the great advantages to science of getting 

 them.in the breeding season, and thus science con- 

 spires with fashion and game-preserving to rob our 

 English fields of their natural inhabitants. 



THE GULL POND 



STANDING on one of the lonely Orcadian shores on 

 a summer day, I have often thought that of all things 

 winged sea-birds offer the most perfect type of wild 

 and happy freedom. The cruising gannet, high in 

 air one moment, the next dropping like a stone upon 

 his prey beneath the water ; the grey gull winging 

 hither and thither on mighty pens or riding buoyant 

 on the seas ; the diver ready between the sighting of 

 a gun and the pulling of a trigger to dive down where 



