•230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



would allow them to do so. I believe most fully in the principle of " live 

 and let live," and consider it a thousand pities that certain birds — e. g. 

 game — should be protected at the expense ot the extinction of certain other 

 beautiful birds — viz. the Jay and the Magpie. Of course I well know that 

 these two are inveterate egg-stealers, nor would I for a moment recommend 

 too many to be kept on an estate, but a pair or two add much interest and 

 beauty to the landscape ; and I hold that no true sportsman would utterly 

 exterminate these birds, even though they caused him to lose a few game- 

 birds' eggs every year. In the same way I am glad to say that the stately 

 though destructive Heron is not utterly exterminated on our trout streams, 

 and I hope devoutly that it will be many a long day before such is the case. 

 To sum up, I do not thiuk that any real assistance can be expected from 

 public bodies in the matter of bird protection. They hesitate to devote 

 public funds to matters which they, in common with many officers of the 

 law, look upon purely as a question of sentiment ; and, therefore, if any 

 real good is to be done, our sheet-anchor is private enterprise. We have 

 legislation dealing with the matter, but unfortunately those who are most 

 eager for legislation very often, when they have got it, are the most remiss 

 in seeing that it is enforced. — Oxley Geabham. 



[Among the most destructive agents to bird-life, I would instance 

 village children and Cats. On the Surrey hills I have absolute knowledge 

 of the eggs of Blackbirds, Thrushes, and other birds having been cooked 

 and eaten when a successful day's collecting has been accomplished, such 

 as the acquisition of more than fifty eggs by one boy alone. Daring two 

 seasons, among the many nests constructed in my garden at Warlingham, 

 not a single brood was reared. A lady in my immediate neighbourhood 

 possessed three " magnificent " Cats, as I heard them described. These 

 brutes were pampered by day, and always turned out at night. All my 

 garden nests were rifled when the young were nearly fledged. One of 

 these furies I privately buried ; the other tvvo escaped many dangers. 

 These Cats were practically bird-eaters. — Ed.] 



