248 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



a little energy on the part of naturalists to make a 

 County Council enforce the protection which the law 

 prescribes, but which is not put -in practice. It is not 

 in keeping with the prestige of a great country that 

 a society privately organised should be found putting 

 in force the law which a public body is empowered to 

 have carried out. 



During the winter of 1900 and 1901 one bird- 

 catcher in North London caught seventeen king- 

 fishers ; all these were captured in the district covered 

 by the Metropolitan Police, and not more than 

 eleven miles from the City. When it is possible 

 for one man to kill such a number of rare and 

 beautiful birds, surely it is time that something was 

 done to prevent this wholesale destruction. If only 

 it could be made illegal to retain captured birds 

 and eggs of rare birds, which are protected, it would 

 be the greatest thing ever done on behalf of the rarer 

 species of these Islands. As the law stands at present, 

 no one has anything to lose by shooting rare birds or 

 taking their eggs. If prosecuted, the offenders are 

 usually fined a small som, about a tenth of the value 

 of the specimens. If a burglar is captured with his 

 spoil he is not allowed to keep it, yet a person 

 can take eggs worth five pounds a clutch ; if found 

 out he is fined about twenty shillings, and he is 

 allowed to keep the eggs ! It pays such collectors' 

 agents to rob our rarest nests, for they have no 



