Society for the Protection of Birds. — No. 31. 
1st to 5th Thousand, April, 1899. 
April, 1899] l&th to 10 th Thousand. 
THE NESTING SEASON. 
The birds are busy nest-building. In a short time the fields 
and woods, the lanes and bye-ways, will be strewn with the remains 
of variously constructed nests, torn and pulled to pieces in sheer 
wanton mischief, and the beautiful eggs will have been pillaged and 
for the most part smashed. 
This senseless and cruel practice goes on year after year though 
it is known that several of the most charming of our Country’s 
songsters are annually becoming rarer, and that some species have 
been well-nigh exterminated. 
The waste of bird-life might be immediately checked if land- 
owners would take measures to prevent illicit bird-catching and 
nest-robbing on their grounds ; and if British boys could be led to 
feel the gladness of free bird-life and to become protectors instead 
of persecutors of British birds. Ministers of all religious denomina¬ 
tions, school masters and mistresses, and Sunday school teachers 
have much influence, and it rests with them to enforce from the 
pulpit or reading desk the appeals on behalf of the birds, to which 
the Press so freely and generously gives space in its columns. 
Information respecting the wanton destruction of birds, or any 
suggestions for its prevention, will be gratefully received by 
Vaughan House, (Mrs.) E. Phillips, 
22, Morland Road, Vice-President of the Selborne Society, 
Croydon. and the Society for Protection of Birds 
Kennell Kodd, 
.(pIpHE caging of birds is a subject about which there is much 
difference of opinion, and we may at the outset admit that 
there is some ground for the difference. While no one can 
so strongly object to the keeping of birds in a spacious aviary, where 
they have ample room to fly about, build their nests, and enjoy their 
lives to a great extent in their own way, no one, on the other hand, 
who has any sympathy with bird life can justify their confinement in 
