THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 245 



the trees and get all the eggs without being noticed 

 by the Forest Rangers. Are not these bird griev- 

 ances which might be prevented by more stringent 

 protective methods? 



Notwithstanding any shortcomings, the London 

 County Council have done much to protect birds in 

 their districts ; but certain ludicrous passages in their 

 bill show that the protection of birds should be 

 governed by a body of practical ornithologists. 

 Thus I remember to have read, that the nightingale 

 and many other choice birds, which love seclusion, 

 are not allowed to be caught on Sundays in the 

 neighbourhood of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely 

 Rents, and Ely Place! All birds are specially pro- 

 tected in London on Sundays, but what birds, except 

 the ubiquitous sparrow, would one expect to find in 

 St. Giles, Shoreditch, Southwark, or Hatton Garden ? 

 At the same time, parks and other open spaces, which 

 come under the jurisdiction of the London County 

 Council, afford shelter to numbers of different species 

 of rare birds ; and it is these that the Act is intended 

 to protect. Indeed, birds are actually finding out all 

 this for themselves in their own quiet and charac- 

 teristic way, for in certain retreats of our London 

 parks during spring and summer, one might almost 

 fancy the spot to be a retired sylvan nook, alive with 

 song and busy feathered workers, "far from the 

 madding crowd." 



