132 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



prison them in tiny cages and carry them off in 

 large numbers to brighten by their sweet, sad 

 sighs for liberty the dwellers in our smoky cities." 



On this point I consulted a bird-catcher, who 

 had spread his nets on the common for many 

 years, and he complained bitterly of the increas- 

 ing scarcity of its bird life. There was no better 

 place than the Thicket formerly, he said; but now 

 he could hardly make his bread there. I presume 

 that a dozen men of his trade would be well able 

 to drain the country in the neighbourhood of the 

 Thicket of the greater portion of its bird life each 

 year so as to keep the songsters scarce. Will 

 any person maintain for a moment that the eight 

 or nine thousand inhabitants of Maidenhead, and 

 the hundreds or thousands inhabiting the sur- 

 rounding country could not protect their song- 

 birds from these few men, most of them out of 

 London slums, if they wished or had the spirit 

 to do so? 



It is true that the local authorities in some 

 country towns have made by-laws to protect the 

 birds in their open spaces. Thus, at Tunbridge 

 Wells, since 1890, bird-trapping and bird's-nest- 

 ing have been prohibited on the large and beau- 



