3 
in the enforcement of these Orders. A little more endeavour must 
be made by the local authorities to see that the regulations they 
had adopted were carried out. 
The disappearance of some of the more desirable sorts of birds 
made an enormous difference to the pleasures of country life. 
Take, for example, a bird like the goldfinch, which was now 
protected in most counties. The goldfinch was a bird of peculiarly 
attractive plumage, and its song, if not brilliant, had a pleasant 
happy ring. You could not be in the country where there were 
goldfinches without being conscious of their presence and brightened 
by it. There were many districts where this bird had been 
extinguished altogether, because the law which ought to protect it 
was not enforced. The same might be said with respect to other 
species, and thus the happiness of the country was being diminished. 
Politicians were always trying to devise laws having for their object 
“the greatest happiness of the greatest numberbut it had often 
struck him that one of the best ways of securing this desirable end 
would be to give people the power of taking pleasure in common 
things. It was sometimes said that the country was dull. To him 
this was a most melancholy statement, for in the country they were 
surrounded by manifold interests, not the least of which was that 
to be derived from watching the ways and habits of birds, and 
seeking to preserve rather than to destroy these beautiful examples 
of the Creator’s power. Attractive they were in all their forms, 
and whether it was the charm of their song, the brilliance of their 
plumage, the grace of their movements, or their usefulness to man, 
they appealed to our sympathies, and we ought to afford them the 
best protection in our power. Once more he would congratulate 
the Society on the progress already achieved, and wish for it still 
greater success in its endeavours to promote one of the purest and 
happiest hobbies it was possible for mankind to have. 
Mrs. Creighton, in seconding the resolution, said she knew 
full well the pleasure of watching bird life, if only in a cursory 
way, and had noticed, as most persons must have done when 
travelling abroad, how dull a country could be when there were no 
birds to etiliven the scene. In this respect we could claim some 
credit for our country ; and she had been struck by the manner in 
which foreign friends had observed and remarked upon the added 
interest given to English gardens by the presence of birds, and 
how much this pleasure was missed on the Continent. But we 
needed more knowledge of, and more real interest in birds, and 
more power of observing them. There was much, even in London, 
to stimulate our interest in the feathered world. Many sorts of 
birds, as they were told by Mr. Hudson, were coming back again 
to live here in spite of their apparently unpropitious surroundings. 
Only last year a cuckoo was hatched by a water wagtail in the Palace 
garden at Eulham. She hoped that Mr. Hudson’s charming book, 
