SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



63 



PRESERVATION OF RARE BRITISH ANIMALS. 

 By John T. Carrixgton. 



T HAVE been favoured with a small four-page 

 reprint of half-a-dozen letters on the destruction 

 of rare birds, which correspondence appeared a 

 few weeks ago in the "Saturday Review." The 

 writers were Mr. Joseph F. Collinson (of the 

 Humanitarian League), Sir Charles Dilke, Bart., 

 MP., Mr. W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S., and Mr. 

 Ernest Bell (a member of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, who is also a member of the 

 Humanitarian League). 



The following passage occurs in the first of 

 these letters, which is by Mr. Collinson : 



■ • A ■ specimen ' of the hoopoe — a lovely creature 

 — it is recorded, has recently fallen a victim to the 

 ■ murderous aim ' of the collector. It was shot by 

 the Rev. R. T. Gardner, at Garstang, Lancashire, 

 on September 29th, 1896. When a clergyman 

 shoots down rare birds one can scarcely wonder 

 that other people who do not profess to be religious 

 do the same. More recent examples are furnished 

 in the case of the kingfisher. Several birds of this 

 species have within the past few weeks been shot 

 in different parts of the country. Two have been 

 shot in the County of Durham, one in Surrey, one 

 in Northumberland and one in Yorkshire." 



To this letter Sir Charles Dilke replied, on April 

 24th last, in a short but sensible communication, to 

 the effect that the kingfisher had in late years 

 increased so greatly on the Thames that they were 

 now as common in that district as they were thirty 

 years ago, when Sir Charles first knew the river. 

 The third letter in this correspondence is by Mr. 

 Hudson, who, as a popular writer on British birds, 

 doubtless knows what he is saying when he remarks 

 that the kingfisher 



" wis almost annihilated by the terrible frost 

 of January and February, 1895 ; and no wonder, 

 for it had been reduced by constant persecution 

 to an insignificant remnant ; and lor five or 

 sin weeks the watercourses were all frozen over 



hoot the length and breadth of the land, 



:d being so severe as to kill the hardy- 

 furze'! roots in most districts. Probably 

 the only kingfishers that survived were those thai 

 migrated to the sea coasts at the beginning 

 intense cold After the big frosl 1 spent some 

 months in tramping through Somerset and Devon, 



; a great many streams, always on the 

 out for the kingfisher ; but not one did I see, and 

 the almost invariable answer to the enquiries I 

 made was that the kingfisher had not been seen 

 after the frost. There have since \x:v. 



/nal'y favourable years — long bright sum- 



and mild winters -and the birds hmve multi- 



pliea During the last twelve months a good many 



n pairs an'l singly, 

 ornamental waters in several of tbi parka." 



haroly necessary to refer to I he remaining 



communications in this reprint, as they arc written 



from the humanitari •,, anil 



». '*97-— No •» Vol. IV. I 



against those whom Mr. Bell describes as the 

 " selfish collector." I need only remark that the 

 letters are characterized by admirable evidence of 

 good-natured sentiment, rather than practical 

 knowledge. For instance, the latter gentleman 

 indicates the danger of disappearance, among other 

 birds, of nightingales and kites. Need I remark 

 how improbable is the loss of the former, or how 

 long since the latter ceased to be a British resident ? 

 The same gentleman refers to the kestrel as the 

 " windover," evidently not knowing that its true 

 popular name is "windhover," from its habit of 

 hovering against the wind when in search of food. 



In the following remarks I would have Messrs. 

 Collinson, Bell and other humanitarians clearly 

 understand that I have as much personal horror 

 and disgust as themselves at the wanton and 

 useless destruction of the rarer members of our 

 fauna and flora. Still, we must guard against 

 allowing sentiment to run into error, which it is 

 very liable to do if every statement that appears 

 in print passes unchallenged — especially in un- 

 scientific or irresponsible papers. My object is 

 not to deprecate the preservation as long as possible 

 of disappearing animals, but to point out that it is 

 the inevitable result of the forces of nature and 

 the civilization of mankind which are the causes of 

 these disappearances, and not acts of the " selfish 

 collector " nor " the cruel sportsman." With 

 regard to the latter, in the case of birds, he is 

 generally wrongly accused ; the work of destruction 

 is rarely by his hands. It is almost invariably the 

 deed of the casual fowler. The ornithologist, in 

 most instances nowadays, meets with his rarer 

 specimens in the flesh, already dead and hanging 

 in some poulterer's or other shop. He must indeed 

 be a young collector who needs to go shooting 

 kingfishers, when he can buy their ready-prepared 

 skins at a cost hardly greater than that of the 

 cartridges he expends upon their slaughter. 



If it were possible to take a census of the wild- 

 bird life of the British Islands and compare it with 

 one taken half a century ago, I believe we should 

 be surprised to find that the gross bird population 

 is now greater, while in regard to native breeding 

 species, hardly any have actually disappeared 

 during the past half century. We should further 

 find that some species more frequently nest in 

 this country at the present time than when our 

 first census was supposed to have been taken 

 lor Instance, one can mention the woodcock. 

 I on the names of some of the birdB 

 which bavedi tappi ired from our Islands within 1 h>- 

 memory of man, we find thai thl [ually 



