254 BIRDS AND MAN 



This is the case, and that it is a bad one, and 

 well-nigh hopeless, no man will deny. Never- 

 theless, I believe that it may be possible to find 

 a remedy. 



That " destruction of beautiful things," about 

 which Ruskin wrote despairingly, "of late end- 

 ing in perfect blackness of catastrophe, and ruin 

 of all grace and glory in the land," has fallen, 

 and continues to fall, most heavily on the 

 beautiful bird life of our country. But the 

 destruction has not been unremarked and un- 

 lamented, and the existence of a strong and 

 widespread public feeling in favour of the pre- 

 servation of our wild birds has of late shown itself 

 in many ways, especially in the unopposed legisla- 

 tion on the subject during the last few years, 

 and the willingness that Government and 

 Parliament have shown recently to consider a 

 new Act. There is no doubt that this feehng 

 will grow until it becomes too strong even for 

 the selfish Philistines, who are blind to all grace 

 and glory in nature, and incapable of seeing any- 

 thing in a rare and beautiful bird but an object 

 to be collected. Those who in the years to 

 come will inherit the numberless useless private 



