[ 8 ] 
poachers is rather the exception than the rule. Were I personally 
called upon to formulate some definite plan of protection of which coming 
legislation might avail itself, I should protect all birds, schedule 
CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS, AND DO AWAY WITH GEOGRAPHICAL DISTINCTIONS. It 
should not be left to County Councils to say, for example, a species should 
be protected in Norfolk, and not in Suffolk. The lack of appreciative 
DISCRIMINATION AS EVIDENCED IN THE PAST DEMANDS THE ABOLITION OF 
option in the future. Another outcome of my proposal would result in no 
exacting claims being made on the oological and ornithological attain¬ 
ments of the magistrates and the police, who, as corporate bodies, can 
have no technical knowledge of birds and birds’ eggs. The exemptions 
would, of course, be birds of sport and birds inimical to sport, and, 
lastly, birds unbeloved of farmers and gardeners. These, moreover, 
would come under the exemption clause only at certain seasons of the 
year. We might, indeed, do well to study the bird preservation acts 
of other countries. For example, I believe that it is illegal in Swit¬ 
zerland to ; destroy any bird whatsoever without a special license. 
As regards the matter of utilising and enforcing the acts for the 
better protection of our wild birds, this chiefly concerns those who 1 have 
the administration of them. I know that there is a tendency on the 
part of some who sit in authority, on sentimental grounds, not to 
press hardly on offenders brought before them for breaches of the law 
with regard to birds, on the score that the delinquency has only to do 
with a bird ! But the law needs to be administered according to its 
just interpretation. A secret of the open contempt for the law in many 
instances is to be found in the wholly inadequate penalties imposed 
for breaking it. Sentiment, equally as fear and favour, should be left 
out of consideration. The principle of what is aimed at by avian legis¬ 
lation should be kept prominently in the foreground. There is an old 
saying that prevention is better than cure. So it is. A few years ago 
I paid a visit to the Bempton and Speeton cliffs, near Flamborough 
Head, my object being to watch the operations with regard to the 
gathering of the guillemots’ eggs. As I walked along the road leading 
from Bempton Station to the cliffs, a distance, perhaps, of a couple of 
miles, I noticed children from time to time diligently searching the 
adjoining banks and hedges. My own thoughts being pre-eminently 
occupied with birds and birds’ eggs, I not unnaturally assumed that these 
roving children were interesting themselves in a hobby in common with 
