186 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



would be no result; for these strangers to our 

 groves would all eventually meet with the same 

 fate as our rarer species and casual visitors — that 

 is to say, they would be shot. There is no doubt 

 that the amateur naturalist has been a curse to 

 this country for the last half century, that it is 

 owing to the "cupidity of the cabinet" as old 

 Robert Mudie has it — that many of our finer 

 species are exceedingly rare, while others are dis- 

 appearing altogether. But it is surely not too 

 soon to look for a change for the better in this 

 direction. Half a century ago, when the few re- 

 maining great bustards in this country were being 

 done to death, it was suddenly remembered by 

 naturalists that in their eagerness to possess ex- 

 amples of the bird (in the skin) they had 

 neglected to make themselves acquainted with its 

 customs when alive. Its habits were hardly better 

 known than those of the dodo and solitaire. The 

 reflection came too late, in so far as the habits 

 of the bird in this country are concerned; but un- 

 happily the lesson was not then taken to heart, 

 and other fine species have since gone the way of 

 the great bustard. But now that we have so 

 clearly seen the disastrous effects of this method 



