LHE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 405 
What a great number of young birds must have gone out 
into the world from that place. The policy pursued by Mr. 
Minot may serve as a model for the protection of a colony 
of small birds, and, if followed faithfully elsewhere, it ought 
to have the same gratifying results. Having undertaken a 
portion of the management of creation by introducing and cul- 
tivating strange plants and trees, and destroying the larger 
wild animals and the Eagles, Hawks, and Owls which for- 
merly helped to keep Crows, Jays, snakes, squirrels, and 
other predatory creatures in check, we must not now shirk 
the responsibility that rests upon us to protect the timid and 
defenceless birds which we have left exposed to their increas- 
ing enemies. But, if we accept the burden of protecting 
birds, we must exercise our power with wise discretion. It 
should not be inferred, for instance, if a gray squirrel de- 
stroys the young of a pair of Robins, that this is a habit with 
all gray squirrels. Those who have large estates, on which 
they can protect birds and game, are particularly fortunate 
if they have in their employ keepers who can intelligently 
discriminate in such matters; otherwise, serious mistakes 
may be made. Millais, in his magnificent work on British 
surface-feeding Ducks, relates that in 1884 Brown-headed 
Gulls began to increase in the bog at Murthly. The keeper 
said that the Gulls were killing young Teal. Another ex- 
perienced keeper suggested that this was probably the work 
of a single Gull. The Gulls were watched, a pair of birds 
were seen together, one of which began to kill ducklings. 
Both birds were shot, and no more ducklings were killed that 
year. In 1890 another pair of Gulls began killing young 
Teal; sixteen were found dead. The two culprits were shot, 
and no more young Teal were killed that season. Millais 
considers that individual Gulls are as dangerous to young 
Ducks as any of their numerous enemies ; and yet probably 
only two, or at the most four, of the large number at the boe 
were actually doing the killing.t| Had not the gamekeeper 
been an intelligent observer, a hundred innocent Gulls might 
have been shot, and the guilty birds might have escaped to 
* Nevertheless, observers agree that the habits of bird-killing and egg-eating 
are quite general among certain species of Gulls. 
