86 Nature protected 
The societies for the protection of 
birds and other similar associations 
co-operate for the preservation of 
some kinds of natural monuments. 
The Royal Society for the Protection 
of the Birds of London offered, in 
1908, the gold medal of the Society 
and a cash prize of 20 guineas for the 
best essay or treatise on comparative 
legislation for the protection of birds. 
An instance of the direct result of 
the efforts of the Irish Society for the 
Protection of Birds may be given 
here. At Malahide Island, there is 
a nesting-place of the Common and 
Arctic Terns. A few years ago a 
couple of pairs of the Common Tern 
were nesting ; and latterly both species 
have bred there, and on one of the 
islands at Skerries. The society in 
question has appointed a watcher, whose 
duty it is to see that visitors do not 
molest the birds or take their eggs. 
