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of throwing at cocks.’ There are many excellent reasons why cricket should 
meet with encouragement and support, but we have been hitherto unaware that it 
had been found useful as a preventive of cruelty.” 
Hind-hunting on Exmoor. — At the end of April a series of 
letters appeared in the Standard calling attention to the bar- 
barous practice of hunting hinds heavy with calf, which has 
been carried on of late years by the Devon and Somerset Stag- 
hounds. It is no excuse for this inhuman practice that it is 
necessary to reduce the number of deer on Exmoor in the 
interest of the farmers. That could be done otherwise. 
The Doomed Otter. — The Daily Mail of April 9 very 
rightly called attention to the payment of a reward of paid 
recently, for the killing of three otters, by the Thames Angling 
Preservation Society. As the Daily Mail points out, persons so 
killing otters or other animals or birds on the river-bank or 
towing-path, or inciting others to do so, are liable, under the 
bye-laws of the Thames Conservancy, to a penalty of ^10. This 
is the law, which is not affected by any increase or decrease in 
the number of otters. 
Wholesale Slaughter of Kingfishers. — Although very 
possibly the kingfisher is in some districts as plentiful as ever, 
when one hotel proprietor can point to a case containing 
between seventy and eighty specimens as “ a fine winter’s 
sport,” as is recorded by Mr. W. P. Westell in the Standard for 
May 22, further protection for this beautiful bird is obviously 
necessary. 
The Heron on the Norfolk Broads. — A correspondent 
writes to us, under date l\Iay 7 : — “ Could you, and the Society, 
do anything to stop the decrease of herons on and about the 
Norfolk Broads ? They are in no danger of extermination at 
present, but, according to an article in yesterday’s Country Life, 
the ubiquitous cockney sportsman is reducing their numbers 
quite perceptibly. The above-mentioned article contains a 
suggestion that there should be legal protection for this 
harmless and beautiful bird, the largest of our wild marsh 
fauna.” 
A Tale for a Donkey. — A Liverpool bird-catcher charged 
with using a decoy lark and a net for catching larks, explained 
to the police that he had only taken his lark out to teach it to 
sing by listening to other larks, and that the net was to keep 
dogs away. The police-sergeant replied that if he told that yarn 
to a donkey it would kick him. 
