284 president's address. 



shot by Mr. Charlton's gamekeeper on the moor about seven 

 miles west of Bellingham a few days previously. The bird, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Tristram, is a well-known inhabitant of Africa, 

 the Holy Land, and parts of Southern Europe. Probably in a 

 case of this kind, any protection which could have been extended 

 to the bird would have had no effect in encouraging its breeding 

 or permanent occupation of the locality, and the acquisition of 

 the specimen is valuable as a tangible record of its occurrence 

 here ; but one must deeply regret the indiscriminate slaughter 

 of all rare animals by gamekeepers and others, a slaughter which 

 is fast making many species rare which ought not to be so, and 

 which will probably before long quite exterminate some of the 

 most interesting and useful inhabitants of our woods and moors. 

 May I while on this subject entreat our own members in all 

 ways to set their faces resolutely against the wanton destruction 

 of plants or animals, whether rare or common. If a botanist 

 takes twenty specimens of a rare plant when he needs only half 

 a dozen, or the owner of an aquarium decamps with two three 

 specimens of an Actinia which perhaps exists on our coasts only 

 by scores, and which he will probably not be able to keep in 

 health for any great length of time, he is acting to the detriment 

 of Science, and trespassing on the enjoyment of his fellow-natu- 

 ralists, not only now, but possibly to future generations. There 

 is really more pleasure to be gained from the quiet contemplation 

 of natural objects in their own proper haunts than from the ob- 

 taining forcible possession of them. Who but must at some 

 time or other have experienced, after letting loose his marauding 

 propensities, something of that feeling so vividly described by 

 Wordsworth, after seeing the ravages he himself had made in 

 nutting — 



Then up I rose, 



And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash 



And merciless ravage : and the shady nook 



Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower, 



Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up 



Their quiet being : and unless I now 



Confound my present feelings with the past, 



Ere from the mutilated bower I turned 



