270 BIRDS AND MAN 



and hobby, and goshawk, and buzzard and harrier 

 are more prized than the kingfisher and other pretty 

 little birds. 



The Philistine we know is everywhere and is of all 

 classes. 



It is to me a cause of astonishment that these 

 mournful mementoes should be regarded as they 

 appear to be, as objects pleasing to the eye, like 

 pictures and statues, tapestries, and other decorative 

 works of art. The sight of a stuffed bird in a house 

 is revolting to me ; it outrages our sense of fitness, 

 and is as detestable as stuffed birds and wings, 

 tails and heads, and beaks of murdered and mutilated 

 birds on women's headgear. " Properly speaking," 

 said St George Mivart in his greatest work, " there 

 is no such thing as a dead bird." The life is the bird, 

 and when that has gone out what remains is the case. 

 These dead empty cases are as much to me as to any 

 naturalist, and I can examine the specimens in a 

 museum cabinet with interest. But the mental 

 attitude is changed at the sight of these same dead 

 empty cases set up in imitation of the living creature ; 

 and the more cleverly the stuffer has done his work 

 the more detestable is the result. 



It may be that some vague notion of a faint rem- 

 nant of life lingering in the life-like specimen with 



