HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
nearly all other Bullfinches — most of them Hima- 
layan — had not been evolved, or as a case of a 
hen-feathered race, dualogues to "henny" game- 
fowl among our tame birds. An official scientist 
on a collecting fHp found this bird, as he con- 
ceived, in imminent danger of extinction, owing 
to the persecution of the fruit-growers, who found 
it a pest, as our own Bullfinch unfortunately is. 
He therefore made this a reason for getting all 
the specimens he could; but not long afterwards 
another naturalist, not an official this time, 
pointed out that it would be just as well to give 
the bird a chance, because another collector had 
since gone to the home of this unfortunate species 
and collected a lot more, so that there must still 
have been plenty left ! 
Then there was a quite recent case wherein 
a collector wrote quite a long paper on his visit 
to the haunts of the magnificent Ivory-billed 
Woodpecker, now apparently restricted to one 
district in Florida; but all he tells us about the 
bird itself is that he shot the only one he saw, a 
poor unmated specimen that might well have been 
the last of the race. It seems that in former times 
the Red Indians used to make coronets of the 
white beaks of this bird; it seems to me that 
thus to use a bird, when common enough, for 
decoration, is no sin, so I do not carp at women 
for wearing birds' plumage in their hats; but I 
do object to the action of naturalists, who should 
set an example, when they go about giving the 
final push to species already on the down grade. 
That some species must die out sooner or 
later is inevitable, no doubt, but there is no need 
to hurry the process. In America, where this 
sort of speeding-up has been unpleasantly in 
evidence, they have now taken measures to have 
birds adequately protected; I hope due care has 
been taken about exemptions, for the American 
scientist is in his way, as wholesale in his des- 
tructiveness as is the American milliner's hunter. 
It disgusted me to see that hundreds of Blue 
Robins and House Wrens were killed to investi- 
gate the contents of their stomachs in an agricul- 
tural research on the economic utility of birds; 
as no one ever accused these birds of harm, and 
every one knew they were insectivorous. Such 
slaughter is. I think, more stupid and barbarous 
than any wearing of feathers. A plume in a hat 
may, at any rate, set off a pretty face, or draw 
attention away from a plain one, but nothing can 
beautify columns of statistics. 
In Europe the same need for drastic protec- 
tive measures does not exist, the control by landed 
aristocracy operating as a whole in favour both 
of the preservation of native species and the in- 
troduction of others, as we may see in the pride 
of most owners thereof in their rookeries, and in 
the close association of the Fallow-deer, Swan, 
and Peacock, with the "stately homes of Eng- 
land." The up-to-date intellectual exclaims at 
the slaughter of Hawks, Weasles, and so forth, 
by gamekeepers, but as I admire pheasants more 
than such creatures, I have no complaint against 
the squire's keeper except when he brings about 
the destruction of such beautiful birds as the Jay 
and Magpie, which in small numbers have very 
little power for harm. 
It is in the transport of threatened species 
elsewhere, I believe, that we have the best hope 
of their preservation, and this has, I know, been 
recommended by American naturalists in some 
cases, notably by one of the most distinguished, 
Dr. Hornaday, in the case of Pere David's Deer. 
I should recommend the procuring of a few 
pairs of these to send to New Zealand and Tas- 
mania, if any of the stock are to be disposed of; 
and, if I were in the position of the Duke of 
Bedford, the guardian of this dying race of ani- 
mals, I should keep no other deer in my park, 
to give Pere David's Deer all possible chances. 
Of course, I do not wish to discourage the pro- 
tection of a vanishing species in its own haunts, 
but it must be borne in mind that the fact that 1 a 
species is rare shows that there are agencies 
operating against it in its home, which may not 
be found when it is transported to a new area. 
Thus, the Goldfinch, if not actually vanish- 
ing, is certainly not common in Britain now-a- 
days, in spite of the limitation of the activities of 
bird-catchers — compared with the Chaffinch and 
Greenfinch, indeed, it can really be called a very 
rare bird. Yet, when introduced into New Zea- 
land and Australia,, it took a new lease of life, 
and is one of the commonest birds in many parts; 
also it is as harmless as it is at home, it furnishes 
an interesting case to oppose to that of the rabbit 
and other introduced hT,iscrear.,ts who have 
brought discredit upon the transport of species 
abroad. 
The misdeeds of these are made the most of 
by professional zoologists who are almost univer- 
sally violently opposed to the shifting of species; 
indeed, they would for the most part rather see 
a species perish altogether than change its habi- 
tat, when of the collecting or museum school, 
for whom the geographical distribution of animals 
appears to be the only point about' living things 
worthy of study. The newer and now dominant 
laboratory or anatomical school have no interest 
in whole animals at all, alive or dead, being wholly 
wrapped up in dissecting and Darwinism; and 
neither school have either the knowledge or the 
interest justifying their control of the relations 
between man and the lower animals; both classes 
are no more fit to decide on the fate of any animal 
than a butcher is to run a dairy farm. 
We are promised many changes after the 
war; as a naturalist, I sincerely hope that there 
will be no further progress in zoology, in the way 
of the present professionalism. The real zoolo- 
gists, in my humble opinion, are sportsmen, fan- 
