194 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



is a useless monster the wonder alike of the learned 

 and the layman, and an awful warning as an example of 

 amateur legislation."* 



In order that the sentimentalist might be propitiated, 

 such birds as robin and dunnock received protection, and 

 a small fine, which included costs, was imposed for an 

 offence against common birds and those which were 

 threatened with extinction. The collector smiled, took 

 the risk, and if caught cheerfully paid, knowing well that 

 such fine was a minute discount off the price which he 

 could obtain. So, in a few years the Act died, and the 

 better framed Act of 1880 was passed, but its scheduled 

 birds were not sufficiently protected, and in a few years so 

 many amended clauses were added that it became necessary 

 to describe the measure as " the Acts"; no one but the 

 lawyer was any the wiser or better off, and few lawyers 

 found it worth while to study the complicated problem. 

 Until protective legislation is framed by scientific, un- 

 biassed students of bird life, who ignore the plea of the 

 sentimentalist and weigh with caution the enthusiasm 

 of the economist, the depletion of bird life that is, of the 

 species we most wish to preserve will continue. 



The law has failed to reach and check the depredations 

 of one class of criminal (it is justifiable to use the term 

 for any law-breaker), the greedy collector and his agents, 

 those who supply him. The professional collector, the 

 man who trades in specimens, is constantly blamed for 

 the damage he does, for his looting is wholesale, but he 

 would very soon turn his attention to some other method 

 of gaining a living were he not patronised; it is the 

 hoarding private collector, the man who pretends to be, but 

 so seldom is, scientific, who is really responsible. 



It must, however, be admitted, as even Newton was 

 forced to admit, that the Acts, in spite of their blunder- 

 * Wollaston, op. cit. 



