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INTRODUCTION. 
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The following Essay was contributed to a public competition initiated 
by the Society for the Protection of Birds towards the close of 1900. I 
have to state that though the Essay failed to meet with the thorough 
approval of the Publication Committee of the Society—it came to grief 
in the preliminary stages—and consequently was not submitted to Canon 
Tristram as the final arbiter, it was read independently, nevertheless, by 
other “ experts ” who strongly advocated its publication. It is somewhat 
significant that Canon Tristram, who kindly consented to read the Essay 
after the awards had been made known, did not hesitate to at once express 
his “ thorough approval j' and likewise urged its publication without delay. 
Such an unsolicited tribute from so eminent an authority may surely be 
held to justify its appearance in pamphlet form. 
I have no scruples in observing I am not now at all surprised that the 
Essay was denied access to Canon Tristram in his judicial capacity, since 
I ultimately discovered that one of my statements, embodying such a 
notoriously well-established fact as that magpies aud jays are detrimental 
to game-keepers' interests, had been laconically annotated—“ No ! ” 
And there were one or two other pencilled comments, which I will consid¬ 
erately refrain from reproducing here, equally infelicitous and entirely 
contrary to the experience of all intelligent and well-informed naturalists. 
Yet, in view of any further invitations to the public to enter into com¬ 
petitions on the same lines under similar auspices, I would with all 
humility suggest to the members of the Examining Committee the pro¬ 
priety of equipping themselves with some elementary knowledge of their 
subject before again adventuring themselves in an arena studded with pit- 
falls and stumbling-blocks to even astute ornithologists. Flouts and 
gibes have no particular fascination for me, and are but a sorry stock-in- 
trade at any time; notwithstanding, they can serve a purpose, and may 
not indefensibly be resorted to as a means of arousing an amiable body, 
admittedly pregnant with charitable intentions, to a sense of the wisdom 
of u setting their house ” in a little better order. Otherwise, indeed, its 
influential status will go in danger of being seriously impugned, and its 
claims and qualifications for speaking with an air of judicial authority 
treated with contemptuous indifference. It is, moreover, a matter for 
regret that the practical sympathies and valuable co operation of the 
really intelligent should continue to be imperilled, not to say alienated, 
through the Society’s tendency to toy with and be seduced by wild-cat 
schemes and artless hallucinations. 
Involved, too, in my stern admonition are considerations above 
and beyond those immediately bearing on the more prominent question of 
