ORIGINAL SKETCHES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 5 



curtailed. Its nest is to be found in varying and odd situations, 

 and in the spring of 1894 I noticed, during a long visit to North 

 Wales, chiefly for ornithological purposes, that a very favourite 

 site for it was not only on but in banks. I was staying at 

 Llanuwchllyn, a village prettily situated near the southern shore 

 of Bala Lake, and it was almost impossible for anyone who 

 possesses a keen eye for birds' nests to stroll along the charming 

 lanes thereabouts without remarking those of Song-Thrushes so 

 located. Children journeying to and from school twice a day 

 along these lanes made sad havoc of all kinds of nests, but it 

 struck me that the poor confiding Song-Thrushes fared the worst 

 at their hands, not even excepting Blackbirds and Robin Red- 

 breasts. The wantonness with which nests were torn from their 

 picturesque sites, and the eggs flung broken on the ground, fairly 

 made my blood boil on many an occasion; while I ascertained 

 that the little girls were every whit as bad as the boys. If 

 masters and mistresses of village schools throughout the kingdom 

 — for I have little reason to doubt that the wantonness com- 

 plained of is pretty general — would take upon themselves to 

 impress on the youthful mind the cruelty involved in robbing 

 birds' nests wholesale without any set or scientific purpose, and 

 would further impress the moral by a little salutary correction on 

 the youthful bodies of hardened offenders, the result would be far 

 more conducive to the peace and happiness of the birds them- 

 selves, and infinitely less harrowing to the feelings of those who 

 from a genuine and deep-rooted love of their subject make the 

 avifauna of these islands the all-engrossing study of a lifetime. 



That some such restrictions in the matter would not be with- 

 out general and good effect is shown, I think, by a visit I once 

 paid to the Bempton cliffs, on the Yorkshire coast — between 

 Bridlington and Filey — in order to watch the gathering of the 

 Common Guillemots' eggs, and make a selection of quaintly- 

 marked and uncommon specimens for my own collection. On this 

 occasion I was accompanied by my wife, who takes as keen a 

 delight in birdsnesting as myself, and is wonderfully " smart " at 

 finding eggs ; and as we walked along the main road from 

 Bempton station to the cliffs, we noticed several nests of different 

 species, containing eggs, in most exposed situations, and were, 

 moreover, not a little struck by the fact that the children we 



