CH. V.] A PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. 207 



have, however, seen the Golden Plover on the 

 higher ground in the island, and known of several 

 instances where it has been shot. 



There appears to exist too often an insane 

 desire to kill rare birds, for no other reason than 

 because they are rare, not with a view to add to 

 the stock of knowledge already possessed with 

 regard to the birds, but from a morbid wish to 

 gratify the vanity of the person who kills them. 

 This surely cannot be too much deprecated, for, 

 should the practice continue unchecked, in pro- 

 portion as each species gives way before the in- 

 crease of population, exactly in the same propor- 

 tion will the gun be raised against it, and thus the 

 present generation may live to lament the absence 

 of many familiar winged friends by which their 

 eyes and ears are now gladdened. 



A picture appeared in Punch, a year or two 

 ago, representing two men of the "navvy" class, 

 watching a traveller quietly passing along the road 

 near them, one of whom says, "I say, Bill, yon's 

 a stranger." Upon which his friend answers, 

 "Oh, is a? 'eave 'alf a brick at 'en then." Now 

 this, which is intended as a hit at the brutality 

 and inhospitality of some of our uneducated 

 classes (scarcely merited, I hope and believe), may, 



