president's address. 257 



birds by wanton persecntion ;" and it is afterwards added (Rule 

 XII.), " That on the other hand members be requested to use 

 their influence with the landowners and others for the protection 

 of the characteristic birds of the county, and to dispel the preju- 

 dices that are leading to their destruction." 



As regards the protection of wild birds in general, the deni- 

 zens of our gardens, fields, and mountains, some difference of 

 opinion exists, as the evidence collected by the Select Committee 

 of the House of Commons, in 1873, only too clearly disclosed. 

 For supposed reasons of political economy, food supply, etc., 

 Major Morant, and other too strict game-preservers, think them- 

 selves justified in waging war a Voutrance against the Raptores 

 and Cor v idee to the great regret of ornithologists, and to the 

 injury of the country at large. It is but seldom that we have 

 the opportunity now of seeing that " weird and majestic bird," 

 the Raven, even in a cage, as I did in August last, at Rothbury, 

 not far from its native haunts at Raven's Crag, on the rocky 

 ridge of Simonside. It had been taken from the nest in the 

 spring of the preceding year with a nest-fellow, which was sent 

 to Dr. Charlton of Newcastle. The specimen which I saw was 

 a fine one in perfect health, and nothing but the strong iron bars 

 of its prison, against which it chafed and struck incessantly, 

 prevented its efforts for freedom from being successful. 



Yet, in the case of the feathered inhabitants of the Fame 

 Islands, no plea whatever can be advanced even in extenuation 

 of such wanton slaughter as that which is said to have occurred 

 last season. A writer in a popular periodical has well remarked, 

 " The Sea-Birds' Protection Act of 1869 met with general ap- 

 proval. Far from injuring man, sea-birds are positively benefi- 

 cial to him. They act as scavengers at all sea- side villages; 

 they fly inland and rid the farmer of noxious larvae ; at Flam- 

 borough, and similar rocky coasts, they warn the mariner by 

 their screams and clangour during fogs to give a wide berth to 

 an iron-bound shore. Their elegant forms and lively evolutions 

 in sea or air delight all eyes. It was high time that ignorant 

 and brutal holiday-makers were restrained by law from wantonly 

 massacring them in the breeding season, under colour of selling 





