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this object nothing could be wiser than the rules laid down by 
the Society for the Protection of Birds in connection with its Bird 
and Arbor Day scheme. What was to be desired was that chil¬ 
dren should be taught to observe, and to draw accurate inferences 
from their observations, for without this power all the stores of 
learning which the human brain could hold were useless. It was 
necessary that all sense-impressions should be made at an early 
age, while the mind was plastic, and before it became, as it were, 
desensitised. For his own part, he thought that cruelty was never 
so bad as when the object of it was such a beautiful creature as a 
living bird. For what would the world be without the birds ? There 
would be none of the delight of spring, none of the full joy of 
summer; all would be winter in our hearts. The very imagery of 
our language could not exist, for the bird was associated with the 
choicest aspirations of the human soul. 
He had not known until he read their Report that the Society 
for the Protection of Birds with which he had been associated in 
South Australia was an offshoot of this Society ; and it gave him 
great pleasure to meet in the same work so many persons of rank 
and leading light in this great centre of the empire. The love of 
nature formed a strong bond of union, and he trusted this bond 
would long continue to exist between the Society and those engaged 
in the advancement of Nature Study, and that the two bodies would 
mutually reinforce and strengthen one another. 
Mr. E. N. Buxton made an appeal in support of the Watchers’ 
Fund. No greater loss, he urged, could be sustained in the natural 
life of the country than the loss of species. Without indicating the 
districts on which they desired to keep a watchful eye, he gave as an 
illustration of the need of watchers the case of a small area in his 
own county where terns bred ; a collector—dire name ! came along 
when the young birds were in the down and carried them all off to 
make “ cases ” of. Unfortunately this was not an isolated instance ; 
a good many of the kind had been experienced. He had, by way of 
experiment, asked the co-operation of eight or ten large landowners 
in the Epping Forest neighbourhood—whose estates amounted in all 
to over 20,000 acres—in preserving bird-life; and he had found no 
difficulty in interesting them; so long as too much was not asked 
ready compliance was given. Some landowners drew the line at the 
sparrow-hawk, but others allowed it to breed and take occasional 
toll. Such an experiment would be worth trying elsewhere, and thus 
a few sanctuaries large enough to serve as breeding-places would be 
established. A short time ago a sportsman wrote to him from the 
other side of the Atlantic some such words as these : “ I agree with 
you that as one gets on in life the love of the wilderness grows 
stronger and stronger. I love hunting still, but slaughter is abhorrent 
to me.” This was the expression of one of the strongest and most 
