Ixviii 



DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTERS. 



they are subjected to from the inhabitants of a populous neighbour- 

 hood. Still there are items of interest to be found in the sequence 

 of bird-life even here ; and were these links and sands as well looked 

 after as those on the other side of the estuary of Tay, there might 

 easily be a great reformation effected ; and in such matters, ornitho- 

 logists can only liope that the Natural History Societies and other 

 really educational Institutes will pay more attention to the matter in 

 the future than they have done in the past, or apparently are doing 

 in the present. Much experience has taught that insistence on such 

 matters is apt to defeat the object, and that if a first application 

 proves of no avail, subsequent ones only accentuate or increase 

 the natural atrophy and pachydermatous condition of the subjects 

 whom it is desired to influence for good. Therefore I will not 

 apply the " embrocation " further, and only express the reasonable 

 hope that something will be done here and in many other populous 

 places. 



