SOME BIRD NOTES 247 



TO EXTERMINATE A SPECIES ! 



To show my utter disgust at the methods pursued by so- 

 called naturalists, I publish a letter which shows how, for 

 paltry pelf, a rare and beautiful British bird may be pursued 

 to its utter extinction. It is well known that this true 

 Britisher, the bearded tit, has a very limited habitat to-day, 

 and but for the efforts of some enlightened folk to preserve 

 it, might soon become as extinct as the dodo. 



" S Y, April 6, 1 892. 



"DEAR SIR, Could you get me bearded tits in the flesh? 

 Can give you 35. 6d. each. Also nests and eggs of same. If 

 at any time you can offer pied or albino birds, shall be glad 

 to hear from you. Yours 



HOOKED BIRDS 



It is not a rare thing for guillemots to be hooked by sea- 

 anglers fishing from piers and breakwaters ; and catching 

 gulls by means of baited hooks was by no means unknown 

 amongst the smacksmen in the /o's and 8o's, when smacking 

 was one of Yarmouth's chief industries. 



A very lively sporting adventure occurred on one of the 

 Broads some years since, when the late Captain Burch and 

 the late Fielding Harmer were pike-fishing with live bait. 

 During a few minutes' inattention, while they were busy at 

 something on the floor of the boat, the float and line were 

 taken into the reed-clump, and a violent commotion ensued, 

 the loose line becoming woefully entangled in the reeds. 

 The anglers thought they had certainly hooked an exceed- 

 ingly lively jack ; but when they had set matters pretty 

 straight again and the " catch " came into view, they were 

 greatly astonished to find that they had foul-hooked by the 

 leg a miserable coot ! 



HYBRID DUCKS 



From time to time I have met with, on the poultry stalls, 

 hybrid ducks that had been shot in the neighbourhood. 



