142 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



the same in other and widely distant parts of the 

 country. At the Bass Rock, the Isle of May in the 

 Firth of Forth, Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, the 

 Pembrokeshire coast, and many other places the 

 same destructive work was w r antonly carried on at 

 this time ; that is to say, about the year 1867. A 

 correspondent told him that on Ramsey Island, off 

 St. David's, 1400 birds had been killed in one week 

 during that summer. With such facts as these 

 before-them, it was generally admitted by the public 

 that it was time that something should be done on 

 behalf of the birds. 



For years after this he interested himself in the 

 passing of Acts for the protection of birds, and his 

 frequent letters to the Times and other papers 

 contributed in no small degree to influence public 

 opinion upon the question. It must, however, be 

 borne in mind that the movement, in an organised 

 shape, originated with the formation of an associa- 

 tion for the protection of sea-birds at Bridlington. 

 The inspiring cause which actually set on foot the 

 movement in Yorkshire was the account of a meet- 

 ing of the British Association at which the subject 

 of the sea-birds came up, and one speaker denounced 

 the people of Bridlington as atrociously cruel in 

 their treatment of the birds. This inaccurate state- 

 ment caused the vicar of the parish to make in- 

 quiries. He found that the blame lay, not with his 

 parishioners, but with " cheap trippers " from a 

 distance. He, however, at once determined to 

 establish an association for the protection of the 



