54 



NA TV RE 



[November i6, 189; 



can be considered a record of itself on the maf^netograph 

 curves." William Ellis. 



Greenwicli, November 9. 



[With regard to the case cited by Mr. Ellis, it is worth re- 

 mark that at the time of Trouvelot's observation, the writer of 

 our "Astronomical Notes" asked Mr. Whipple whether the 

 eruption was accompanied by any anomalous magnetic move- 

 ments. Mr. Whipple replied : " There was not the slightest 

 magnetic disturbance on June 17, 1891, at the hour you men- 

 tion, or for days before or since." The point was again raised 

 at th? beginning of last year, and to make assurance doubly 

 sure, Mr. Whipple a&ain referred to the Kew curves, but failed 

 to find any trace of what could be termed a magnetic disturbance 

 at ihe hour inquestion. (See Nature, February 25, 1892.) — 

 Ed.] 



THE NEW BIRD-PROTECTION BILL. 



SENTIMENT is a beautiful thing in its way, and 

 when that way happens to coincide with the way of 

 common sense, the man must be a brute who defies it. 

 But unluckily that does not always happen, as is testified 

 by several instances that could but here shall not be 

 cited, for they will come uncalled to the recollection of 

 many of our readers, and indeed to some they are ever 

 present. These need not to have the difference between 

 a sound and an unsound sentiment pointed out. But 

 there is also a sentiment that is perfectly sound at the 

 start, and yet, chiefly through want of knowledge — we 

 hesitate to call it ignorance, because that might imply 

 blame — sooner or later begins to betray symptoms of 

 running on the wrong track, when, if the brakes cannot 

 be applied, it comes into violent collision with common 

 sense. As the latter is the weightier mass the harm it 

 gets from the impact is not often very serious, and the 

 injuries received seldom cause more than delay, however 

 annoying that may be ; but the effect on the lighter body 

 is apt to be destructive, and though in some cases it may 

 be only repelled with slight damage, in others it may be 

 shattered. In either event, seeing that it set out with 

 good intentions, the result is to be regretted. 



Of this kind of sentiment is that which actuates the 

 extreme advocates of Bird Protection. Time was when 

 the sickening slaughter of sea-fowl at their breeding- 

 stations around our coast appealed alike to sentiment 

 and to common sense — to say nothing of science — to in- 

 terfere. First carried on for what was called " sport," but 

 soon for the sake of mere lucre, the feathered denizens 

 of our cliffs and beaches were shot down by the thousand, 

 to do nobody any good but the " plume-trader." The Act 

 of Parliament which received the Royal Assent in June 

 1S69, and is always to be remembered in connection with 

 the name of Mr. Christopher Sykes, was just in time to 

 save from extinction the population of many a thronged 

 resort which has always presented, and we trust always 

 will present, a spectacle of delight to the large and in- 

 creasing class of our fellow-countrymen who appreciate 

 the harmonies of nature, even if the resorts on the 

 English coast cannot compare with those 



where the Northern Ocean in vast whirls 



Boils round the naked melancholy isles 

 Of sea-girt Thule, or the Atlantic surge 

 Pours in among the stormy Hebrides. 



That Act may have had its shortcomings : few Acts are 

 without them ; but nobody can doubt it was effective to 

 do good, and it was followed by other Acts, based on the 

 same principle, and tending to relieve persecuted beings 

 from persecution. An exception indeed must be made 

 as regards one of them, but that one (which was com- 

 mented upon at the time in these columns ') only serves 

 to support the allegation in our introductory paragraph. 

 In 1S72 some enthusiasts followed the line of sentiment 

 regardless of common sense, and succeeded in converting 

 a well-considered and practical measure into one that 



1 Nature, viii., p. i, (May i, 1S73). 

 NO. T255, VOL. 49] 



was specious and useless. They had their reward, for in 

 the next session their parliamentary leader obtained a 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons to enquire 

 into the subject, and the result of the investigation 

 showed every reasonable person the baselessness of the 

 points for which the extreme party had contended, while 

 three years later the very Bill which they had mutilated 

 and mauled passed through Parliament almost exactly in 

 the form in which it had been originally introduced. The 

 enthusiasts, however, had the satisfaction of stopping 

 useful and much wanted legislation for four years in order 

 to gratify their own gushing and unintelligent sentiment, 

 while their Act, always a dead letter, was superseded by 

 the Act of 1880 which consolidated all previous legisla- 

 tion. Still the spirit that moved the enthusiasts is not 

 dead. In one way or another it shows itself every year 

 — sometimes, though not often, it confines itself within 

 the bounds of common sense, but of late it has become 

 we may say rampant. None of the former Acts had 

 done anything to stay the taking of birds' eggs. Indeed, 

 birds' eggs had been, and that purposely, wholly left out 

 of consideration, and this in the eyes of many excellent 

 people has seemed to be a glaring defect — even a crime. 

 Let us stop birdsnesting, say they, and the number of our 

 birds will be indefinitely increased. Nightingales will mul- 

 tiply, Goldfinches will be as plentiful as Sparrows, and 

 Skylarks will swarm. Little do these good people realise 

 the state of things. Let us grant that in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of towns and. large villages, where birds 

 are already at a disadvantage, boys will emerge, and 

 successively rob nest after nest as it is built with an 

 eftect that may be called devastating. The case, how- 

 ever, is very different in the country at large. There the 

 first species of those we have just named already enjoys 

 a protection incidentally yet almost invariably conferred 

 upon it by the law of trespass. We can believe almost 

 any act of folly or stupidity on the part of some game- 

 keepers, and the widely-told story that one of that 

 profession once declared that he destroyed Nightin- 

 gales because their singing disturbed the nights' rest 

 of his pheasants may have some foundation ; but nearly 

 all observers who have informed themselves by experi- 

 ence will agree that the part of England which Nightin- 

 gales choose to occupy is generally as fully stocked with 

 them as the place will hold. It is certain to those who 

 watch that the number of Nightingales which return to 

 this country with each returning spring is greater than 

 that which can find room. Hence those ever-recurring 

 contests of melody that we hear from rival cock birds on 

 their first coming, to say nothing of the actual conflicts, 

 often ending in the death of one of the combatants, that 

 take place between the competitors. And it is only 

 natural that it should be so. That if a Nightingale's 

 nest be taken the same birds immediately build a second, 

 and if need be a third, is a perfectly well-known fact, 

 and it would be a very unlucky pair of Nightingales to 

 have their nest robbed thrice in a season. At a very 

 moderate computation the number of young Nightingales 

 that must annually attain their full growth in this country 

 doubles that of their parents, since from five to six are 

 commonly reared in each nest ; and, with a large allow- 

 ance for casualties in youth, it is safe to calculate upon 

 four of each brood having reached maturity when the 

 time of emigration arrives. What happens during their 

 absence from this country is of course beyond our ken, 

 but the certainty with which migratory birds return to 

 their home is now well-recognised ; and it is not 

 less certain that of this species more return to England 

 in spring than are able to find accommodation in our 

 woods, coppices, and shrubberies, as the conflicts just 

 mentioned testify. Hence it would follow that were the 

 taking of a Nightingale's egg made a capital offence, we 

 should not have, one year with another, more Nightin- 

 gales, though, to retain the number we have, it is impera- 



