BIRD PROTECTION 
n 
so, then during the coming summer we shall miss the great 
crested grebe and the little grebe, the “ greatest ornithological 
ornaments” of our inland waters (as they have been so truly 
called), from their accustomed haunts where we have watched 
them and their young, and their interesting nesting habits, in 
former years, with such pleasure and admiration. I would there- 
fore appeal to all our owners of inland lakes or streams where the 
grebes are still to be found, to extend a protecting arm to such 
of these interesting and beautiful birds as are left, and to see 
that no loafing gunner or depredating egg-collector persecutes 
them. And to bird lovers and County Councillors of those 
counties which have not already included the grebes and their 
eggs in their Wild Bird Protection Orders (which it is now in 
their power to do), I would also appeal to take steps at once 
to give full protection to all species of grebes and their eggs 
during the coming breeding season. If any of our readers can, 
in the next number of Nature Notes, give accurate information 
as to where and in what numbers the present supply of grebe 
skins has been obtained, it would be most useful to those of us 
who are interested in Wild Bird Protection. 
J. R. B. M. 
Annual Report of the Society for the Protection 
of Birds. — At the annual meeting of this Society, held on 
February 25, a report was presented containing the following 
passage : — 
“ It is with sorrow and shame that we have to confess that 
the fashion of using the plumage of birds for millinery purposes 
continues unabated ; that, in fact, it has in 1897 assumed 
greater proportions than ever. This can be fully evidenced by 
studying the catalogues of the firms who sell the freshly im- 
ported birds’ skins and feathers by public auction. For the 
Kingdom of Great Britain the year 1897 has been one of jubila- 
tion, but for the bird kingdom a record year of pillage, devasta- 
tion, and unmerciful destruction. The recuperative powers 
which birds possess are of no avail against this excessive drain 
on their numbers. If birds and their allies prove incapable of 
resisting such remorseless foes, the present generation of 
mankind will have to bear the everlasting odium of having 
blotted out of existence some of the loveliest of created beings. 
And not this only, but of having done so often by barbarously 
cruel means, such as inflicting on sentient creatures, high in the 
scale of animal life, the horrors of a slow and painful death ; for 
in this pursuit parent birds of some species are shot in the act 
of feeding their young, and the tender nestlings are consequently 
left to die of starvation. Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., who has 
recently become an associate of this Society, is now painting a 
picture, representing an angel, with bowed head and despairing 
figure, bending over a marble tomb covered with birds’ wings, 
while a spirit of evil grins below. This conception may safely 
be said to forcibly represent the feeling of the Society with 
