112 OniE PRESERVERS AND BIRD PRESERVERS. 



systematically destroyed for years and years, 

 wliat bird which hves or breeds principally on 

 the ground would be safe, if, as some natm-ahsts 

 wish and advise, they were always preserved ? 



And one ' cruel ' keeper, the Eev. Mr. 

 Morris tells us, had actually destroyed fifty-four 

 in a short time. If they were so numerous, 

 was not it time for man to interfere ? 



But these gentlemen's arguments are un- 

 inteUigible to us. They wish to preserve birds, 

 they say ; but they seem much more anxious in 

 reality to preserve bkds' destroyers. 



Let us furnish a stoat with a diary, and with 

 the power of telling us how he passes a summer 

 day, and then read what he will probably have 

 written : — 



' Slept rather heavily, having drunk too 

 much hen-pheasants' blood the evening before, 

 but went for a stroll about five a.m. I soon 

 found a yellow-hammer's nest, but, jumping a 

 little too far, just missed the old hen. However, 

 I sucked her eggs. Shortly afterwards I 



