190 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



seemed to think. But he was not content with that; 

 he continued by attacking the Grey Seals Protection Act 

 of 1914, and, though an Irishman, he was absolutely 

 ignorant of his own native fauna. "Its object is to 

 protect the species of seal known as the Halichczrnus 

 grypus " (this is the spelling as it appears in Hansard). 

 " I do not know what we are protecting when it is so 

 described. I am advised that there is no such thing 

 in the waters of this country as the Halich&rnus grypus. 

 It is a variety that is found only in Scandinavia. It 

 sometimes swims over as far as Denmark. The humour 

 of this legislation is that there is no such thing in this 

 country to protect." Comment is unnecessary. 



Those who have followed since 1880 the repeated 

 muddling alterations, amendments, and orders of the 

 Wild Birds Protection Acts must realise that the passing 

 of laws alone will accomplish nothing. The law must 

 be backed, and backed with determination, by public 

 opinion. Then the constable will feel that he is supported 

 in his efforts, that the Bench is behind and not against 

 him. It is true that many of the officers require instruc- 

 tion; they are not ornithologists, and may easily make 

 mistakes about the identity of species; it is equally true 

 that our magistrates, supposed to be educated men, are 

 frequently more ignorant than the constabulary. There 

 are, of course, magistrates and magistrates, and we cannot 

 expect that all should at sight be able to tell the difference 

 between a protected and unprotected bird, but that is no 

 excuse for doubting the word of a constable. I have in 

 mind one local case. A bird-catcher was summoned for 

 trapping protected redpolls, and his defence was that the 

 birds were not redpolls but " jitties"; the constable, a 

 Cheshire man, asserted, quite correctly, that " jitty " w^s 

 a local name for the redpoll, but the magistrate, somewhat 

 sharply, demanded how he knew, gave the accused the 



