224 USEFUL BIRDS 



LXXXIII 



As yet, Great Britain compares favourably with every 

 other Christian country in Europe in the abundance of 

 Useful k^d life- I say Christian, because, as is well 

 Birds known, Mohammedans refrain scrupulously 

 from molesting even such birds as we reckon vermin in 

 this country ; the interest of travelling through Turkey 

 is much enhanced by the number and variety of 

 feathered creatures in the woods, the fields, and even 

 in the towns. In other countries, the growing scarcity 

 of useful birds has attracted the attention of their 

 respective legislatures. With Mr. Howard Saunders, I 

 was appointed by the Board of Agriculture to attend 

 the international conference invited by the French 

 Government to assemble in Paris in June 1895. Every 

 European Government, except that of Turkey, was 

 represented, and we found the greatest difficulty in 

 persuading such of the delegates as had never visited 

 England to believe in the abundance of bird life in our 

 country. 



Our existing legislation provides for most of the 

 resolutions carried at the conference ; but there is one 

 point in which foreign nations invite our co-operation, 

 which ought not to be difficult to carry out, namely, that 

 we should prohibit the importation of birds scheduled 

 as utiles a I' agriculture, and protected abroad. Why 

 should the cultivated lands of Holland and Belgium be 

 stripped of their feathered police, the lapwings, in order 

 that Cockneys may eat them as golden plover ? 



