198 BORROWED PLUMES 



lovely animals on earth. Are we to arrive at the 

 sorrowful conclusion that it is the will, not the power, 

 that is wanting ? 



In respect of our own legislation for wild birds' pro- 

 tection, welcome evidence has been given this year that 

 the various Acts are being more vigorously administered 

 than they were at first, when county councils seemed to 

 hesitate about exercising the powers conferred upon 

 them. I have described elsewhere the disastrous effects 

 of netting as practised on various parts of the coast, 

 and especially upon the practical extermination of 

 ruffs and reeves in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Mr. 

 W. A. Dutt now reports a nest in Norfolk, during the 

 present season, and reviews the history of this most 

 interesting species during the last fifty years. A 

 hundred years ago ruffs and reeves abounded in the 

 fens and broads, but they were so relentlessly perse- 

 cuted with clap nets, to be fattened for the market on 

 bread and milk, that in 1858 only fourteen nests could 

 be counted in the whole of Broadland. In 1868 there 

 were no more than five, and in 1878 but two nests ; 

 after which date the only instances of reeves being 

 allowed to breed in England were a single nest in 1889 

 near Hickling, and another in 1897 near Hoveton Broad. 



In the present year (1908) nests have been found and 

 protected both in Norfolk and Yorkshire, and there is 

 good reason to hope that, by the combined vigilance of 

 the police and the agents of the Royal Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, these charming and beautiful 

 creatures will be established once more in our land. 

 How beautiful the male bird is in his courting dress, 



