3 
very poor substitute for tbe flight of a bird. In connection with 
the humane side of the question, it might be noted that one of the 
worst features of cruelty to birds was that that cruelty seemed to 
be consecrated by long usage. The labourer or the farmer who 
had destroyed birds from his youth was not likely to put any 
check upon his children. Eggs were taken as indiscriminately 
now as ever, and young birds found in the nest were thrown upon 
the ground to die a lingering death; or they were taken to spend 
the rest of their lives in caged misery. He thought that no British 
bird should be allowed lo be kept in a cage. He was afraid that 
no legislation would be able to effect a remedy, but their hopes lay 
in educating the rising generation to better things. 
He was aware that the Society excluded everything relating to 
sport from its propaganda, and he thought that it was quite right 
in doing so. He wished that people were not allowed to shoot 
until they were good shots; and he recognised that it was 
difficult to persuade boys who were employed as beaters and in 
other ways in connection with shooting, that it was cruel to kill 
birds or to take nests. 
As to the utilitarian value of birds, he thought there were no 
two opinions, as those who had studied the question agreed that 
were it not for birds most of our crops would be lost through the 
ravages of noxious insects, and our lives out of doors in the 
summer would be a burden to us in consequence of the multitudes 
of flies and crawling creatures. He believed that it was much 
cheaper to provide netting to protect fruit from fruit-eating birds 
than to destroy the birds which fed upon the insects which 
destroyed the crops. 
But, perhaps, the worst of all enemies to birds were the 
children. He held that it was the duty of those who had 
charge of the education of children to instil into their minds a love 
of birds, an appreciation of their beauty, and a sense of their 
usefulness, and to make them understand that violence to birds, 
and, in fact, to animals of all kinds, was generically the same as 
violence to a helpless baby. He did not doubt that this could 
be effected. 
Another thing to be done was to introduce Nature-study very 
largely into the schools. Country children were dead to the 
beauties of their surroundings unless they were taught to observe 
them. To an untaught country child, what was a bird ? something 
to throw a stone at. What were birds’ eggs ? something that would 
look pretty on a string. What was a tree ? something to cut a stick 
from. Such a child lived in a fairyland, but did not know it. He 
(Sir George) would like to see Nature-study taught largely in a 
practical way in all rural schools. But the fruit of such teaching- 
must not be expected to appear very quickly. The tendency of all 
the teaching of the Board of Education in the present day was to 
prodace greater refinement and better taste and higher civilisation 
