354 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
prosecution should rest with a private individual. It is not the 
ornithologist who takes one clutch for scientific purposes who does 
the harm, but the professional collector who decimates whole 
colonies time after time. I frankly own that I am indebted for a 
great deal of my knowledge of the various nesting-places, resorts, 
and habits of some of our rarest birds to men who, unfortunately, 
are sometimes tempted by the ridiculously high prices paid by 
collectors to shoot these birds in the breeding-season, for the 
sake of their plumage; but I strongly maintain that it is the 
collectors who are the most to blame—qui facit per aliwm facit 
per se—and not these men who are not too well endowed with 
this world’s goods, and who, most of them, are decent fel- 
lows, struggling to earn an honest livelihood. Only this season 
I have known, in the county, of Cormorants being shot on 
the coast; Dotterel on the wolds; a Honey Buzzard, Turtle 
Doves, and Nightjars in the plains, in full breeding plumage, and 
in open defiance of the law; but what canI do? As Mr. South- 
well truly remarks, even if one felt inclined to take up these 
cases, would it do any good? ‘The penalties are so inadequate, 
and above all, though perhaps this may seem a selfish view to 
some, these men’s mouths and others like them would be 
eternally closed, which when one is working up a county fauna 
would be a most serious thing. So that, however much one may 
deprecate and deplore the destruction of our favourites, the most 
that can be done is to see that this destruction is not wholesale. 
I have often procured immunity for the remainder by a little 
judicious expenditure of the current coin of the realm. These 
men rely on one’s honour “ not to give them away,” so that one 
is compelled as it were to a certain extent to “‘ bow oneself down 
in the house of Rimmon.” 
I forgot to mention that, while visiting the cliff-climbers at 
Bempton, where the Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Kitti- 
wakes are aS numerous as ever, I was told that a Guillemot, 
pure white except for its black head, had been frequently seen by 
them. 
In conclusion: I was much interested in an article that 
appeared in ‘ The Zoologist’ some little time since, on the time ~ 
of day at which various birds lay their eggs. I have taken 
particular notice this season, and the conclusion I have come 
