322 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Birds singing during Thunderstorm. —It was curious to notice, 
during a heavy thunderstorm on May 23rd, many Thrushes singing most 
lustily, and also a few Chaffinches. The terrible peals of thunder, flashes 
of lightning, and the deluge of rain did not disturb them in the least. Are 
there many species of birds which sing under such conditions ? — C. B. 
Horssrueu (4, Richmond Hill, Bath). 
The Protection of Wild Birds and their Eggs.—I have long had it 
on my mind to address a few words on this subject to ‘The Zoologist,’ and 
my pen has been quickened by the receipt during the last few days of letters 
and circulars from sundry sources inviting an exchange of eggs. My egg- 
collecting days have long since gone over, and though, admittedly, I once 
on a time derived an immense amount of pleasure from the hobby, it was 
never associated with such wanton and wholesale spoliation as obtains in 
certain districts nowadays—in flagrant and contemptuous defiance of the 
law. I write in no narrow-minded spirit, for I am very tolerant of egg- 
collecting in a humane fashion by boys who have a penchant for natural 
history, and of egg-collecting in reason by scientific ornithologists; but my 
hobby just now, and for the future, is the devotion of my energies to the 
preservation of birds, and the protection, within certain limits, of their eggs. 
Since the middle of April I have been wandering about the country, 
studying birds in their breeding haunts; I wound up my tour by staying 
for a week at a very pretty spot in one of the western counties, which boasts 
a stringent and not altogether ill-conceived “order” for the protection of 
sundry wild birds and their eggs during the summer months. I say “ not 
ill-conceived” advisedly, for some of the “orders” of a kindred nature issued 
by County Councils elsewhere can only be regarded as legislative absurdi- — 
ties. However, this by the way. As for any heed or respect being paid to 
these “‘ orders” in the majority of cases, it is out of the question to expect 
such a thing; while the following will illustrate the lengths to which con- 
tempt for the same can go. Before the end of my sojourn in the county to 
which I have particularly referred, I found that many of the boys for miles 
round were in the habit of collecting eggs for a certain individual in the 
neighbourhood, and of course were paid for them. This I heard in- 
cidentally had been going on for years. If ever I met a boy on the road, and 
enquired if he had any eggs, the answer was sure to be, ‘Yes; but I’m 
going to take them to .” J went to one boy’s home, and glanced over 
the result of his depredations; scores and scores of eggs, most of them 
belonging to our commoner summer migrants, in all stages of incubation, 
and many of them of no value whatsoever, met my eye. Nests were taken 
wholesale as well as eggs, and in the nests were placed slips of paper pur- 
porting to bear the dates on which the various clutches were taken. Such 
dates were mostly imaginary, as I had ocular proof; but this is a detail. 
