NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
231 
We are fortunately not very much troubled with professional bird-catchers, but 
only by a few amateurs, so that I think this may account for their numbers. I 
often see them both in large and small flocks, and a piiir or so nested in my garden 
in Brecon nearly every year.” The second piece of evidence is to be found in 
to-day’s issue of The Field (October 28), where Mr. W. A. Light, writing from 
Mid-Uevon, tells us that in his opinion this species is on the increase in that 
district. 1 would also call attention to some useful remarks of Mr. F. Boyes in 
the same number of The Field, in which he veryjustly urges that the increase and 
diminution in the number of species is due much more (as I argued in your last 
number) to the operations of Nature than to the machinations of man. 1 do 
not deny that in the case of the goldfinch its popularity as a cage-bird has had 
some influence on its numbers, but it is as well to remember that this popularity 
is no new phenomenon of the nineteenth century. If your readers will turn to 
Willoughby’s “Ornithology” (1678), p. 257, they will find that as a captive it 
was as highly esteemed then as it is now ; yet in the space of more than two 
centuries it has never become extinct. If we may believe those who threaten us 
with its speedy extinction, it was even very abundant until human nature suddenly 
became depraved at some uncertain date in the last half-century. 
Kingham, Chipping Norton, W. Warde Fowler. 
October 28, 1899. 
In a letter to Nature Notes on the subject of the protection of wild birds, 
Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes as follows : — 
“ In a recent number of The Spectator, Mr. Joseph Collinson stated that not 
only the goldfinch, but the kingfisher, red-backed shrike and reed-warbler, are 
also disappearing in numbers. My experience does not tally with this statement 
in the case of any one of these species.” 
This is reassuring as far as it goes, but of course it does not cover the whole 
ground. The exigencies of space at the present moment would scarcely allow of 
you inserting a compilation of even a tithe of the evidences which I have collected. 
I may say, however, that many well-known authorities are decidedly of the 
opinion that the goldfinch is a decreasing bird, and they are agreed that he is in 
danger of extermination unless more effective measures are devised (and rigorously 
applied under authority of the police) for his protection. 
The following testimony is brief and to the point : — 
Mr. W. H. Hudson, one of the most reliable authorities, in a letter to The 
Times of September 26, 1896, says : — “ We see that the goldfinch is fast dis- 
appearing : fifty years ago it was universal and common.” 
Mr. Boyd Alexander and Mr. R. Purcell Llewellin have both written to Land 
and IVater deploring the decrease of the goldfinch. Says the latter writer : — 
“ For twenty years I have noted the gradual decline in the number of goldfinches 
and linnets, until it has come to this, that for seven or eight years I have not seen 
a single wild specimen,” and he adds that “ there are plenty of observers in the 
West Midlands who say the same.” 
According to the Dundee Advertiser, the goldfinch has declined enormously 
in Scotland, and similar stories reach us from Wales and Ireland. So much so 
is this the case, that the dealers now look to Spain and other continental countries 
for three-fourths or more of their birds. The late Mr. Grant Allen, Mr. G. 
Dixon, Mr. James Hiam, the Messrs. Kearton, and the Board of Agriculture, are 
acceptable authorities, and their testimony is somewhat to the same effect. 
My statement concerning the reed-warbler is based on my own observation. 
I have taken eggs from the nest of this bird in places where now they are almost 
as rare as those of the great auk. Of the red-backed shrike I know nothing. My 
authority for stating that it is one of the species known to be annually diminishing 
in numbers is Mr. Hudson. 
With regard to the kingfisher, I have evidence of this species being molested 
in a wholesale manner, either by the egg collectors or the operations of the bird 
catchers. Moreover, fishermen and keepers alike are his sworn enemy. I have 
received information from many reliable sources that the kingfisher is netted and 
destroyed in a wholesale manner at the fish ponds and hatcheries. This beautiful 
fellow is certainly still subjected to much senseless and bitter persecution. 
53, Chancery Lane, London. Joseph Collinson. 
November 15. 
