H3 



various breeding haunts round our coast being able to rear at 

 least one brood in peace and comfort, provided their eggs were 

 held sacred during that period. Plover, snipe, and some other 

 birds which breed inland in colonies would need similar pro- 

 tection for their eggs. Mr. Taylor stated he was not at all in 

 favour of over-legislation, and that he held a government might 

 become too paternal ; therefore he was not in favour of any 

 legal punishment or fine being imposed on every thoughtless 

 little boy who robbed a bird's nest. Strongly as he deprecated 

 such cruelty, he thought that as regards the solitary nests of our 

 ordinary small birds, home teaching and the inculcation of 

 thoughtfulness and kindness for the lower animals would be a 

 sufficient safeguard against destroying most birds' eggs. Parents, 

 teachers, and the admirable lessons inculcated in various ways 

 by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, might 

 safely be left to guide public sentiment and the habits of boys 

 about taking birds' eggs from mere wantonness. As regards 

 the schedule annexed to the Act, it is a defective one in the 

 nomenclature, without entering on what reasons led to the 

 rather puzzling selection of privileged birds. The local English 

 names of several species were given — names which none but 

 students of ornithology could recognise. Then, there seemed 

 some extraordinary confusion in actually repeating the same 

 bird under different names — for example, on the schedule the 

 gannet is mentioned in one place and the solan goose in another ; 

 the two names are for the same bird. The curlew is mentioned 

 in one part of the list, the whaup in another : — to these the 

 same remark applies. The new Act, however, as a whole, being 

 well meant and carefully devised, should have a fair trial, and, 

 perhaps, hereafter, some of the improvements suggested might 

 be added to it. 



