BY WAY OF APPENDIX. 
225 
shall be on a level with the New Zealanders of 
to-day. In that colony, while the authorities are 
taking active measures to preserve the native 
species from extinction, many private individuals 
are engaged in introducing the familiar songsters 
of England — the skylark, blackbird, throstle, robin, 
nightingale, and chaffinch. 
Just when I had finished writing the preceding 
paragraphs, intending with them to bring this 
small volume to a conclusion, the welcome informa- 
tion reaches me that a new Wild Birds' Protection 
Bill has been framed, and is now waiting the 
decision of Parliament. Whatever its ultimate 
fate may be, the introduction of such a measure — 
a first attempt with us to prevent the taking and 
destroying of birds' eggs and nests in the nesting 
season — must be regarded as additional evidence 
of the existence of a widespread and deeply felt 
desire in this country to give our wild bird life 
better protection than was accorded to it by the 
Act of 1880. 
I am sorry that my friend who catches linnets 
on the village common is not threatened in his 
vocation by this proposed law. His trade, I 
hear, was originally that of cobbling, and I should 
be pleased to see him once more earning his living 
by re-soling old shoes. But it would be exceed- 
Q 
