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paradise in the tropical woodlands to ornament the heads of people 
in this dark, dirty, smoke-begrimed city. Surely the classic custom 
of wearing garlands of flowers would be far more suitable. He 
thought that ladies were not guilty of cruelty in using the plumage 
of birds so much as of thoughtlessness. For instance, he might 
cite the case of the lady on Waterloo Bridge who was admiring the 
flight of the sea-gulls that had visited the River Thames this 
winter, and who exclaimed, “ Oh, ’ow beautiful! ’Ow I should 
like one of those wings in my ’at.” There were other enemies 
to the birds, namely, the farmers and market gardeners. 
When would those persons know their own interests ? Certain 
kinds of birds might, under certain circumstances, become so 
numerous as to be really destructive, especially as birds of prey had 
been almost eradicated from the country in the interests of sport; 
but he believed that if only all kinds of birds were left alone nature 
would preserve a proper balance. IVIost of the birds that were 
destructive to grain and fruit were equally destructive to noxious 
insects which injured the crops. They might take the lesson of 
the starling which at certain times of the year was a nuisance, for 
it ate his cherries, and he had to net them to preserve them. 
But, on the other hand, in the spring-time, the starlings would 
go to their nests every two minutes with big grubs in their mouths, 
and thus relieve the crojis of the ravages of those grubs. 
Then there were the children to be dealt with. These might be 
considered as the heirs of the errors of their fathers. Another 
enemy of the birds was the man who called himself a “ naturalist,” 
and who prided himself on his collection of rare birds, the results 
of his own acts of slaughter. He (Sir George) abandoned such 
naturalists, and he should like to eliminate them from the list. 
He took it that the Society’s advocacy~of the preservation of 
birds rested upon three different grounds, which were yet inter- 
' dependent and consistent with each other. These were the aesthetic 
view of bird preservation, the humane view, and the utilitarian 
view. As to the aesthetic view, they all loved birds, not only for 
their plumage, but for their grace of movement, and for the life 
which they gave to the country. They loved them also for their 
delicious song. It was delightful to observe how, under certain 
circumstances, birds would lose their fear of mankind and become 
real companions of human beings. A familiar instance was that 
of the wood pigeon, one of the shyest birds of this country, which 
had become so tame in the parks in London. Another instance 
was that of the robin. It always seemed to him that there was 
something very mysterious in the flight of a bird. A sage in the 
past, Agur, son of Jakeh, said in the Proverbs of Solomon that 
there were three things that he could not understand, and one of 
these was the flight of an eagle in the air. Since the days of 
Icarus men had been trying to obtain means of flight for them¬ 
selves, but without success. A movable dirigible balloon was a 
