THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



189 



larvae of Acidalia contiguaria would, no 

 doubt, be devoured with as much avidity as 

 that of one of our most destructive insects. 



Professor Newton (who wrote me a private 

 letter after my paper was published in the 

 " Naturalist," saying he did not wish to 

 argue the question), says that small birds 

 are no more numerous now than they were 

 before the passing of the Bird Acts. Can 

 auy one believe that the rigid protection, 

 which has been given to birds and eggs by 

 the law, and the trouble the " Society for 

 the Protection of Cruelty to Animals " has 

 taken to see that the law in this respect has 

 been carried out, has had no effect upon 

 bird life ? Now when bird-nesting is con- 

 sidered illegal, and when every gunner has 

 to pay ten shillings for a license before he 

 can fire a shot, can it be the same as it was 

 when the school-boy was permitted to range 

 the fields and woods, and plunder and rob 

 every nest he came across ? Nobody will 

 be so absurd, surely, as to think that these 

 laws have had no effect. But Professor 

 Newton says that this country was full of 

 bird population before the passing of the 

 acts, and that being full to the extent of the 

 liirits, no increase could take place. Then, 

 really, what were the acts passed for ! If 

 the country had as many birds as it wouid 

 hold, and if they were not persecuted as 

 Professor Newton says, it seems a matter of 

 the greatest absurdity to take up the time of 

 Parliament, and encumber the country with 

 a law which was not needed ; and if not 

 needed why should it be retained ? 



My own observations, and I think those 

 of most naturalists, will be in direct opposi- 

 tion to what the Professor states. In the first 

 place small birds were persecuted. Almost 

 every schoolboy ranged the hedgerow, the 

 woods, and the fields, robbed and ripped 

 every nest he came across, very often only 

 to place the eggs upon a wall and pelt them 

 to pieces with sticks or stones, or at the 

 best to pierce a hole in at each end, thread 



them upon a string, and allow them to 

 hang somewhere until all, one by one, should 

 succumb to the same sad fate. Every per- 

 son who had a gun went very much where 

 he liked, shot the birds for mere sport, 

 often not troubling even to pick them up. 

 Birds caught alive, such as larks and lin- 

 nets, also formed a very considerable pro- 

 portion of this destruction of bird life. At 

 Form by, forty dozen of larks have been 

 taken from the snares in one day by one 

 person, their necks screwed round, and sent 

 to market. Under these circumstances we 

 may with safety assume that the birds were 

 persecuted and required protection— not the 

 protection afforded by an Act of Parliament, 

 but a protection of a very different charac- 

 ter, to which I will presently refer. Now, 

 considering that much of this has been 

 stopped by the recent acts, I do not see 

 how we can avoid the conclusion that the 

 birds, during the time, have increased, and, 

 as a matter of course, the insects must have 

 correspondingly decreased. Of this we have 

 ample proof. Mrs. Hutchinson says that in 

 the district where she lives small birds are 

 so numerous that no insect life which they 

 eat can exist. Early in the year I was stay- 

 ing with Mr. Whitaker at Rainworth Lodge, 

 Notts., and one day we took a walk through 

 his woods. We observed several specimens 

 of leucophearia and pilosaria against the 

 trees. Mr. Whitaker told me that a few 

 weeks before he found these insects swarm- 

 ing ; but visiting the wood a few days later, 

 he found that the tits had taken possession 

 of the wood, and that every tree was strewn 

 at the foot with a shower of wings from the 

 captured moths. Such events as this must 

 have some effect, and, in my opinion, a very 

 considerable effect upon the future broods 

 of insects. 



It may be objected that we should pro- 

 tect insectivorous birds, because they des- 

 troy large quantities of injurious insects, as 

 I have shown in the case of the rooks and 



