THE DARTFORD WARBLER 241 



the guarded birds would be the first to vanish ? I 

 have seen such things pairs of rare birds breeding 

 in private grounds, where the keepers had strict 

 orders to watch over them, and no stranger could 

 enter without being challenged, and in a little 

 while they have mysteriously disappeared. The 

 " watcher " is good enough on the exposed sea- 

 coast or island where an eye is kept on his doings, 

 and where the large number of birds in his charge 

 enables him to do a little profitable stealing and 

 still keep up an appearance of honesty. I have 

 visited most of the watched colonies, and therefore 

 know. The watchers, who were paid a pound a 

 week for guarding the nests, were not chary of their 

 hints, and I have also been told in very plain words 

 that I could have any eggs I wanted. 



It is hardly necessary to say here that the proposed 

 alteration in the law to make it protective of all 

 species will, so far as the private collector is con- 

 cerned, leave matters just as they are. 



There is really only one way out of the difficulty, 

 one remedy for an evil which grows in spite of 

 penalties and of public opinion, namely, a law to 

 forbid the making of collections of British birds by 

 private persons. If all that has been done in and 

 out of Parliament since 1868 to preserve our wild 



Q 



