The Zoologist— May, 1870. 2133 



is in my estimation only a stalking-horse put forward to cover and 

 protect the acts and delinquencies of that class of pot-hunters who 

 swarm throughout the country, and are the bringers to market of the 

 bundles of song-birds that we see every day suspended from the shops 

 of the small game-dealers in our towns. To these heartless wretches 

 a nightingale would be no more sacred than a starling. I would 

 therefore suggest that all lovers of Ornithology should unite in 

 protesting against this mock sympathy for the imaginary school-boy, 

 a sympathy which is sure to be developed by such newspaper articles 

 as I have referred to, and aid by discussion and argument the carrying 

 out of this beneficial tax on fire-arms. 



Mr. Robert Gray, the Secretary of the Natural History Society of 

 Glasgow, in his concluding remarks on the " Birds of Ayrshire and 

 Wigtownshire," published in the Proceedings of that Society for 1869, 

 writes ably and forcibly on the subject of the preservation of our 

 birds: — " \¥e cannot withhold the expression of a belief, in which we 

 trust that most persons interested in ornithological pursuits will readily 

 join, that the time has now arrived when the protection of various 

 classes of birds has become a paramount duty. We have only to 

 consider the vast diminution of species that has taken place during 

 the last thirty years, in order to learn the mischief that has resulted 

 from one cause alone — viz. the over-zealous destruction of creatures 

 that are supposed to be enemies to game. * * * We still cling 

 to the hope that similar enactments (referring to the Act for the 

 Preservation of Sea-birds) may yet be framed for the protection of 

 land birds, from the soaring eagle to the timid thrush ; and until this 

 takes place, proprietors would earn the gratitude of all true naturalists 

 by resolving to discontinue the deadly practice of exterminating what 

 their keepers have branded as vermin." 



Still referring to Mr. Robert Gray's admirable paper, I find that 

 Section VI. of the Laws of the State of New York provides for the 

 protection of a large number of laud birds, including the eagle, fish 

 hawk, night hawk, whip-poor-will, swallow, oriole, woodpecker, 

 bobolink, or any other harmless bird. The penalty for violating the 

 provisions of this Act is stated at fifty dollars for each offence. Thus 

 we see that in the Republican States of the New World the protection 

 of birds is more cared for by the statute book than in England. 



The deductions which I wish to make from these remarks will not 

 I think be gainsaid by your readers, namely, that the diminution of 

 many of our species of birds, and the destruction and extermination 



