256 Notes. 



4. To schedule a number of birds which may not be caught 

 or killed even on his own land, by owner or occupier, during 

 the close time, and for the catching or killing of which the 

 penalty is a sum not exceeding one found. These are chiefly 

 rare birds, and a certain number of sea-birds ; but among them 

 are Cuckoo, Curlew, Dotterel, Fern-owl or Goat-sucker, Gold- 

 finch, Kingfisher, Lark, Nightingale, Plover, Sandpiper, and 

 Woodpecker. 



It will be observed that this Act only protects the living 

 bird of all ages, but not the eggs : so that bird-nesting may 

 still go on with impunity. But the framers of the Act had very 

 good reasons for omitting this, wanton cruelty as it often is; 

 for as the offenders are usually of tender age, they must be 

 appealed to rather by education and moral suasion than by the 

 terrors of the law. It lies with the clergyman and the school- 

 master to see that gross cruelty meets with its proper punish- 

 ment cruelty such as that which once occurred in my village, 

 where some boys stopped up with clay the hole of a tree in 

 which a Tit had laid her eggs, because it was too small to 

 allow the entrance of the thieving hands. 



The worst kind of bird-nesting is carried on by boys after 

 they leave the village schoo 1 , when they make this the employ- 

 ment of idle Sundays and holidays. The best remedy for this, 

 and other habits that are worse, is to find other and rational 

 employment for them. Reading-rooms, games, music, etc., I 

 may remark, are usually out of their reach on Sundays, when 

 most of the mischief is done. 





