154 SECTION A. GENERAL ZOOLOGY. 



The fact is there is lots of sympathy, but a very limited stock of 

 popular understanding on the subject. Everybody loves song-birds ; 

 nightingales and thrushes have plenty of friends ; but our ignorance 

 of the true nature of a bird sometimes leads to its receiving a 

 misleading and injurious name. Take the night-jar {Capriimilgics) 

 as an example. Caprhmdgns, the scientific (!) name of this bird, 

 perpetuates a libel as old as classical times, that this bird sucked 

 the milk of goats and cattle. That was scarcely likely to win it 

 favour at the hands of dairymen — every cowherd and goatherd 

 thought it to be his duty to destroy these beautiful birds by every 

 means in his power. Well, that lie lived for thousands of years and 

 died very hard, if indeed it is dead in all country districts. But its 

 place has been taken by another. When we became too intelligent 

 to call the Capriviulgits " goat-sucker " in plain English, we took to 

 calling it night-hawk, because its flight and figure bear some re- 

 semblance to a hawk, and fern-owl because it has soft noiseless 

 feathers like an owl. Well, these names were in turn fatal to the 

 poor night-jar, because when game-preserving grew into fashion, all 

 hawks and owls alike were condemned to death by the gamekeeper. 

 I need hardly say that all these bad names given to the night-jar 

 with such fatal effect were utterly unjust, and applied in profound 

 ignorance of the bird's real habits. The night-jar was called goat- 

 sucker, because of his habit of flying round cattle and goats, even 

 under their bellies, in pursuit of flies : he was called fern-owl 

 because he flies noiselessly by night : he was called night-hawk 

 because he hawks diligently after insects, but it would have been as 

 sensible to accuse him of house-breaking or high treason as to 

 suspect him of any of the crimes of which he has been accused and 

 for which he has been so cruelly punished. The fact is he is one of 

 the best friends the farmer and gardener have, living chiefly on 

 moths (the parents of caterpillars), on chafers (the parents of the 

 destructive wire-worm), and on daddy-long-legs (the parent of 

 the not less hurtful leather-grub, or pout as we call it in the 

 north). 



It is the object of the Society for the Protection of Birds to 

 disseminate sound information on the habits and functions of useful 

 birds, and I desire to commend that Society to your most favour- 

 able consideration. 



After some remarks by Canon Tristram, Mr HOWARD SAUNDERS 

 pointed out the futility of legislation against killing such species as 

 the lapwing, ruff and reeve, so long as the birds were allowed to be 

 sold in the open market under the pretext that they were imported 

 from abroad. 



He considered that woodcock and other Limicolae should be 

 protected from ist February onward ; and he testified to the great 

 increase in the number of several species of ducks as breeders in 

 this country, owing to recent legislation. 



