480 
Birds' 1 -Nesting, 
[July, 
in addition to their interest to the ornithologist, these events 
have ever possessed a special charm and interest for the 
young of all ranks of life. The beauty of the nest, and the 
beauty of form and colour of the egg, accompanied too by 
the novelty of finding such a treasure, combine to present 
a temptation to the finder too strong for any schoolboy to 
resist. The desire of possessing coloured and shining 
objects, which he possesses in common with the savage 
whose adult condition of mind he represents, leads to the 
destruction by him of a vast number of eggs and nests ; 
for the youth, having taken the prize, speedily tires of his 
acquisition, and the eggs are soon broken, and new “ sensa- 
tions ” sought for. 
Most people will agree that such wanton destruction is to 
be deplored ; but for ages birds’-nesting has been the school- 
boy’s license, and while most parents disapprove of it, few 
go the length of absolutely prohibiting it — still fewer use it 
as a means of imparting that pleasing knowledge of the 
natural history of birds which would soonest cure the pro- 
pensity, and teach the youth at once humanity and zoology. 
That some efficient protection should be given to eggs and 
nests is the unanimous feeling of naturalists. 
At present the parent birds themselves are protected 
during the season of nesting by a somewhat imperfect — but 
still, as far as it goes, a very beneficent — Act of Parliament ; 
but it need hardly be pointed out that if a female bird is not 
allowed to rear any young, the chances against it (person- 
ally or by its offspring) surviving the winter, or, if it is a 
migratory bird, of returning in the following spring, are in- 
creased by as many times more as the number of young it 
might be supposed to rear ; and in this way persistent and 
injudicious birds’-nesting may soon diminish the number of 
birds in a given area. And that birds’-nesting has this 
effect will not be doubted by any one whose study of the 
subject has led him to remark the diminution of small and 
rare birds in particular districts, or by one who has had op- 
portunities of knowing what immense numbers of birds’ 
eggs are annually destroyed by marauding youths. 
There are always at work enough of causes — some natu- 
ral, some artificial — which are not preventible, tending to 
diminish the numbers of our birds, more especially of our 
smaller song birds, either by cutting off their food supf lies 
or by destroying their nesting grounds. Every field, marsh, 
or swamp that is drained, lessens the supply of insedt-life 
on which a great majority of small birds live ; every piece 
