CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 39 



appearance of wild plants in the neighbourhood of Manchester. The 

 Chairman thought it might be read at the second Conference. Mr. 

 Cuthbert Peek remarked on the great difficulty of obtaining a conviction 

 in cases in which ferns and other wild plants had been taken from private 

 grounds. 



Destruction of Wild Birds' Eggs. — The Rev. E. P. Knubley said terrible 

 damage had been done by the destruction of birds' eggs. It was a sei'ious 

 matter, but it was very difficult to know what to do iu regard to it. For 

 instance, take the case of the great skua, which nested in the Shetland 

 Islands : in 1890 it is said that not a single chick was reared on the 

 whole of the Foula colony. Every egg was taken, and in 1891 all the 

 eggs of the first laying were taken by the inhabitants and sold to dealers. 

 Other rare birds which nested in the Shetland Islands were also perse- 

 cuted. He had it on good authority that last year not more than two or 

 three nests of the red-throated diver got off their young ; and the black- 

 throated divers were not more fortunate. One shilling apiece was given 

 by dealers for the eggs of the red-tliroated diver, and 10s. a brace for 

 those of the black-tliroated diver. The whimbrels, which also nested on 

 the same islands, had been reduced to about twenty pairs, and were 

 likely to disappear. The red-necked plialarope was very much iu the 

 same circumstances. The dealers gave a commission to a local man, 

 who was to get about 8d. a dozen for every egg collected of all sorts and 

 kinds. The local men in turn got the herd boys to sweep tlie country of 

 every egg they could lay hands on, big and little, and for these they got 

 about Id. a dozen. That was one way in which parts of Scotland had 

 been regularly swept, and that in spite of such protection as the owners 

 could afford. They had men who followed about strangers all day, but 

 the natives took the eggs at night. Then, again, he might mention 

 that he heard that in Edinburgh there was a gentleman who made it 

 his boast that he had over 100 eggs of the golden eagle. What was to 

 be done with a case of that kind ? In some parts of England things 

 were not any better. The nesting stations of the lesser tern which 

 exi.sted on the Fifeshire coast, the Lincolnshire coast, and at Spurn, in 

 Yorkshire, would shortly disappear altogether. The oyster-catcher and 

 the Arctic tern had practically ceased to nest on the Lincolnshire and 

 Yorkshire coasts, and the ringed plover was much scarcer than formerly. 

 The redshanks and greenshanks had in many parts also been persecuted 

 to the death. The nests of the bearded reedling, whose breeding station 

 in the British Islands was the Norfolk Broads, had been to his own 

 knowledge systematically poached for sale for a number of years. The 

 only hope seemed to him to be in the creation of a public feeling against 

 the extermination of these birds. It would be difficult to advocate any- 

 thing like legislation. The most practical plan he had seen was this — 

 that the Imperial Legislature should gr.ant powers to the County Councils 

 to protect known nesting-places in their districts for certain months of 

 the year, say from April 1 to June 30. Such a plan would be simple, 

 and might be effective ; but for one thing they should endeavour to do 

 all in their power to help the owners and occupiers of land to protect the 

 birds and their eggs during the breeding season. They might also see if 

 they could not enlist the aid of the gamekeepers, who, with the farmers 

 and proprietors, were beginning to find out that all birds were not their 

 enemies. Collectors and dealers should also be discouraged. Just as he 

 came thei-e that day he had been told that 200 eggs of the stormy petrel 



