CORRESPONDENCE 191 



the men Places for Red Caps which should be 

 looked after at once, yours truly a fancier." 



Another letter from a correspondent in Wiltshire, 

 written in 1873, on the same topic as the foregoing, 

 though expressed in a way better calculated to 

 satisfy one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, 

 gave a long account of the ways of certain bird- 

 catchers near Bristol. After advocating a tax on 

 clap-nets, the licensing of bird-shops, with other 

 precautionary measures, the writer went on to 

 express his opinion of the Act which had recently 

 been passed for the protection of birds. In the 

 schedule of names he held that it was desirable to 

 give various designations for the same bird, and in 

 support of his opinion he instanced a case in point. 

 He had a garden, and in the spring the Bullfinches 

 made raids upon it, doing no little damage. Men- 

 tioning this to a neighbour, he was met with the 

 remark, " There is none gets into mine ; I keep the 

 door looked, so that neither bulls nor cows get in " ! 

 He was reminded that it was the birds that were 

 meant. " Oh," he replied, " you mean the ' Tawney 

 Hoops/ not the Bull what do you call them? Oh, 

 finchers ; ay, just so " ! 



When it was said, as it was so commonly, that 

 the damage done by birds was a "serious loss to 

 farmers and gardeners," and that to protect the 

 birds was only to do so at other people's expense, 

 such letters as the following from a large market- 

 gardener came as most welcome and valuable 



