NOTES AND QUERIES. 435 



down by a snowball ! — Thomas Geound (Whittlesea, Waverley Road, 

 Kenil worth). 



One of the Causes of our Rare Birds disappearing. — While I entirely 

 agree with Mr. Warren's action [ante, p. 391), and hold no brief on 

 behalf of the trading collector, I feel that a protest should be made 

 against the assumption that, because a Yorkshire dealer or collector 

 holds a large stock of duplicate Ospreys' and some Golden Eagles' eggs, 

 this is the cause why " the Golden Eagles and Ospreys of Scotland are 

 so steadily vanishing." One is accustomed to these statements from 

 the more hysterical bird protectionists, but it is surprising to find it 

 coming from a naturalist of Mr. Warren's reputation. In the first 

 place, it is a well-known fact that the Golden Eagles of Scotland, 

 instead of vanishing, have enormously increased in numbers, in spite 

 of a certain amount of egg-taking, because the old birds are not shot 

 doton noiu on jnany deer forests. On the other hand, the Osprey is on 

 the verge of extinction, but, as Mr. Warren must be aware, this is 

 due to the wanton slaughter of the birds on migration through 

 Ireland, and not to egg-collecting at all. How many clutches of 

 British Ospreys have been taken of late years ? Yet eyrie after 

 eyrie is deserted in spite of strict protection, and simply because one 

 or both of the birds have been barbarously murdered, either on their 

 way south after the nesting season, or moving northward in the 

 spring, to be finally recorded in the pages of the ' Irish Naturalist.' 

 We are not guiltless in the matter in England, but I am inclined to 

 think that the English birds are generally of Scandinavian rather 

 than Scotch origin. Without knowing anything of Mr. Warren's 

 correspondent, I will undertake to say that there is not a single 

 British-taken egg among the fifty duplicate Ospreys' eggs of which 

 he writes. In all probability they are American eggs taken some 

 years ago before the passing of the present protection laws. I have 

 looked in vain for some words of reprobation from Irish naturalists 

 of note when these murders were duly recorded. Mr. Warren has 

 told us how the gamekeeper and the sporting tenant have just exter- 

 minated the Sea-Eagle in Ireland. Cannot Ireland be content with 

 the destruction of her own fauna without robbing Scotland as well ? 

 — E. C. R. JouEDAiN (Chfton Vicarage, Ashburne, Derbyshire). 



A Note on Continental Birds. — I spent my two months' hoHday 

 in 1911, in July at Berchtesgaden, in Bavaria, and in August at the 

 Ehone Glacier. I was not as fortunate as usual in my observations 

 of birds, for after the very hot month of June nearly all the song- 



