DESTRUCTION FOR PLEASURE OR LUXURY 191 



Maxwell, that "every egg was taken on the principal island, 

 and many of the parent birds were shot," to satisfy the brisk 

 trade at high prices created by their rarity. So a special law 

 had to be enacted in 1904, protecting it from the collector's 

 gun and the nest-harrier. In England the extinction of 

 other birds threatened by the increase of cultivation has 

 been ensured by the zeal of the collector. Amongst such we 

 may safely reckon the Red Night Reeler or Savi's Warbler 

 (Locustella luscinioides] of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, ex- 

 terminated about 1849, the Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa 

 limosd] and the Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigra) of the 



Fig. 44. Artaxerxes Butterfly (upper and under sides) exterminated on Arthur's Seat. 

 Natural size. 



Norfolk Broads, the former of which finally disappeared 

 between 1829 and 1835, and the latter in 1858. 



It is an unfortunate paradox, which must remain from 

 the nature of the case, that just when the creatures he 

 envies require protection most, the collector's enthusiasm 

 rises and his efforts redouble. He seldom exterminates a 

 species from the beginning, but when other causes have 

 threatened the existence of a creature, he puts a seal upon 

 its doom. It was only when the Kite became a rare bird 

 that he turned his attention to it and its eggs, and now the 

 most careful protection can scarcely outwit the fate he has 

 decreed for its last British survivors in Wales. 



