DESTRUCTION FOR PLEASURE OR LUXURY 193 



moved to Loch Morlich or Loch Gamhna, the egg-stealer 

 pursued them. From 1843 to 1899, when the last pair built 

 at Loch-an-Eilan (although individuals were seen up to 1902), 

 there are definite records that the Ospreys nested in twenty- 

 four years in that or the other two Lochs mentioned, and there 

 are records as definite that the nests were harried and the 

 eggs taken on fifteen occasions! The wonder surely is that the 

 Speyside Ospreys survived this heartless persecution so long. 



BIRD-CATCHING 



The barbarous habit of keeping wild birds in cages for 

 the beauty of their plumage or the sweetness of their song 

 must also be pilloried from the point of view of interest in 

 our native fauna. The toll taken by professional bird- 

 catchers is common knowledge to the frequenter of bird- 

 shops, but it is perhaps not realized how seriously their 

 depredations affect the numbers of certain kinds of wild birds. 

 It is supposed that in recent years bird-catching has been 

 on the decrease, but the lists of cases tried in court and re- 

 sulting in proof of guilt, show that the practice is still very 

 common, and the numbers of bird-catchers who escape the 

 law, as the naturalist who is familiar with favoured bird re- 

 sorts in Scotland knows, is out of all proportion greater than 

 the numbers convicted. 



Take only one or two cases in illustration of the results 

 of this trade in living flesh and blood. It is on record that 

 in January 1895, when a late migration brought great num- 

 bers of Twites, Linnets, and Red-polls to the shores of 

 eastern England, one bird-catcher netted, in four successive 

 days, 70, 130, 220, and 330 Linnets. And in the winter 

 of 1900 another expert caught 140 Siskins one morning 

 before breakfast, on a decayed lettuce patch. In recent 

 years the London market has considered a supply of 400 

 dozen Linnets a week in October a small average, and 600 

 dozen has been reached. 



The case of the Goldfinch is even more pitiful. These 

 graceful and beautiful birds frequent, in flocks, patches of 

 teazle or thistles, and remain attached to a patch until all 

 the food afforded by the seed-heads has been consumed. It 

 is a practice of some bird-catchers to plant teazle in their 



