182 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Writing in ■ The Times' of the 13th April last, Mr. T. Digby 

 Pigott thus criticises the provisions of this Bill, and gives an 

 abstract of the Dutch laws which affect the protection of wild 

 birds' eggs : — 



" By common consent it is desirable, if our rarer species of 

 birds are to be saved from possible extinction, that their eggs 

 should be protected. As to the manner in which such protection 

 can best be secured doctors differ, and it is by a process of elimina- 

 tion that we are most likely to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. 



A general protection of all wild birds' eggs is admitted by 

 every one to be out of the question, and, in the opinion, I think, 

 of most who have given attention to the subject, the likeness of 

 the eggs and breeding habits of many common and rare birds 

 makes any discriminating law which would protect the eggs of 

 certain species and leave those of others unprotected scarcely less 

 impracticable. 



A proposal made in an early stage of the agitation, that eggs 

 might be legally collected if taken for food, but not for any other 

 purpose, was disposed of by Bishop Wilberforce, who convinced 

 the House of Lords that it would be unreasonable to compel 

 ' a man of science ' to prove his right to keep a treasured egg in 

 his collection by eating it. 



A later proposal is Lord Walsingham's, made last session, for 

 the establishment of 'sanctuaries' where birdsnesting should be 

 a crime within a charmed line, though legal outside. Excellently 

 as such an arrangement may work in an undeveloped country — as 

 applied, for instance, by Lord Onslow's Government to ' the Little 

 Barrier' and another outlying island of New Zealand — it is 

 scarcely, perhaps, so well suited to the conditions of life and 

 property in crowded England. Squire A and Lord B, if they are 

 sensible men, might not object to their adjoining properties being 

 placed on different footings ; but Tom Smith, with a cottage on 

 this side of the brook, would find it a little difficult to appreciate 

 the justice of a law under which his boy has to go before them as 

 magistrates for taking a nest, while Bill Jones's boy, just over 

 the bridge, strings eggs by the dozen without a word from the 

 policeman. 



I venture, with all deference to one of our highest authorities 

 on matters connected with natural history, to think that a better 

 remedy is to be found in another direction. 



