256 BIRDS AND MAN 



established to find out the offenders, and that they 

 should be pilloried in the columns of some widely- 

 circulating journal, a method which has been tried 

 with some success in the cases of other classes of 

 obnoxious persons. This suggestion may be dis- 

 missed at once as of no value ; not one offence in 

 a hundred would be discovered by such means, and 

 the greatest sinners, who are not infrequently the 

 most intelligent men, would escape scot free. 



Perhaps I should have said that three 

 suggestions have been made, for there is yet 

 another, put forward by Mr. Richard Kearton 

 in one of his late books. He is thoroughly 

 convinced, he tells us, that the County Council 

 orders are perfectly useless in the case of any and 

 every rare bird which collectors covet ; and on 

 that point we are all agreed ; he then says : 

 " We should select a dozen species admitted by 

 a committee of practical ornithologists to be in 

 danger, and afford them personal protection 

 during the whole of the breeding season by 

 placing reliable watchers, night and day, upon 

 the nesting-ground." 



Watchers provided and paid by individuals and 

 associations have been in existence these many 



