BRITISH BIRDS AND BIRD LOVERS. 179 



taken or observed. This practice, however, stimulates many 

 collectors to win a doubtful immortality by shooting every strange 

 bird they see, in the hopes that they may appear in print as 

 the fortunate captors. Several leading ornithologists are now 

 making a determined stand against recording the glorious fame 

 of those who in this manner procure rare specimens, a decision 

 which is much to be applauded. During the winter of 1874-5, 

 for instance, vulgar avidity or misdirected zeal killed many 

 bitterns in England, a pair of the smaller bustard, snow bunt- 

 ings, grey shrikes, Bohemian waxwings, rollers, and many rare 

 kinds of ducks. How much better to have suffered the more 

 uncommon amongst these birds daily to have drawn near to 

 man more confidingly, and exhibited unharmed their beauty 

 and peculiar instincts ! If such birds must be shot for the 

 sake of science, the modern plan of preserving them as skins 

 with arsenical soap should be adopted ; these skins can be kept 

 in a drawer and examined when required without doing them 

 the least injury, which is far preferable to having them mounted 

 in glass cases. Apart from scientific ends, to slay a rare bird, 

 like the rose-coloured pastor, or even an unusual one, such as 

 the innocent kestrel, whose fare consists of mice, for the sake 

 of keeping its grotesque mummy in a glass case, where it may 

 minister to the vanity of its possessor, is a crime against society 

 at large. It requires a very observant naturalist and admirable 

 taxidermist to set up a bird with careful reference to its form 

 and habits when alive. Every bird-stuffer does not possess the 

 genius of Mr. Hancock, whose case of falcons must be remem- 

 bered by every visitor to the Exhibition of 1851. There is not 

 a more depressing sight to a lover of bird-life than the boxes of 

 so-called stuffed birds which are suspended in many suburban 

 lodgings and country inns. Shooting birds in order that they 

 may be converted into such miserable caricatures of their 

 original selves ought to be an offence punishable by fine and 

 imprisonment. Few people are aware how profitably birds 



