H4 IN BIRD-LAND 



and with one and all it seems to be the rule t.o get 

 all the eggs they can lay their hands on, and oil 

 every kind ; no matter whether the eggs are rare o* 

 common, the whole clutch is taken. 



The more rational pursuit or art of birds-nesting, 

 as it is called, can be pursued without taking the 

 whole clutch, or causing the birds to desert the 

 nest ; and this is perhaps one of the most fascinating 

 and healthy pursuits of boyhood, and it has been 

 the means of making many a naturalist. As 

 regards myself, when birds-nesting I prefer to 

 take my camera instead of a collecting-box, and I 

 would much rather have a photograph of a nest, 

 or of the sitting bird, than the rarest egg. 



In a little book published by the Society for 

 the Protection of Birds by W. H. Hudson, entitled 

 " Lost British Birds," the author sums up the case 

 in the following words : " It is after all very 

 difficult to determine which of the following three 

 inveterate bird-destroyers have done and are doing 

 the most to alter, and, from the nature-lover's 

 point of view, to degrade, the character of our bird 

 population : The Cockney sportsman, who kills for 

 killing's sake; the gamekeeper who has set down 

 the five-and-twenty most interesting indigenous 

 species as * vermin ' to be extirpated ; or, third and 

 last, the greedy collector, whose methods are as 

 discreditable as his action is injurious." 



