m 
my own. But I was mistaken. I found, on speaking to the various 
little groups, that flowers were the object of their search. All had the 
saime tale to tell. Their village schoolmaster had 1 taught them how 
wrong and cruel it was' to molest nests or take eggs, and, somewhat 
singularly, I had chanced on them at a moment when they were giving 
practical evidence of the value of such praiseworthy teaching. Young 
children are always very impressionable, and I am convinced that an 
immense—nay, an immeasurable amount of benefit would accrue to our 
wild birds if in every single school throughout the length and breadth 
of the land teachers would combine to impress on those committed to 
their charge how wrong it is to persecute or interfere with birds in 
any way whatever. There is never anything lost by instilling sound 
principles in the young. 
As bearing upon the question of educational methods, much good 
no doubt is done by the circulation of books, pamphlets, and leaflets. 
The Society for the Protection of Birds has taken a leading and played 
a noble part in this particular direction. It is common knowledge, 
too, that women have not been backward in heading the crusade against 
the pitiless destruction of bird life which has been carried on for years 
past all over the world. Both sexes are zealously co-operating to procure 
the enactment and enforcement of laws, orders, and bye-laws 
for the protection of birds as public property; nor 
can it be doubted that the righteous cause they have 
so warmly at heart' will reap incalculable benefits as time rolls on. 
Children, our future men and women, must be taught to cherish the 
freedom of our wild birds, and to guard, not destroy, their nests and eggs. 
Gamekeepers as a class are not only obstinate, but ignorant. Still, 
there are many who- may be termed most enlightened. To my mind, 
however, it is less advisable to treat with a keeper than with his master. 
The latter, even if he possesses some quaint ideas about owls and kestrels 
being uniformly destructive to game, is always more or less susceptible 
to reason. Yet, again, much of the obstinacy on the part of keepers 
may arise from people endeavouring to make them believe what they 
well know to be untrue, viz., that no birds are enemies to game. In 
this we have an example of the stupidity of venturing statements that can 
easily be falsified. Far wiser is it to recognise and openly admit that 
magpies, carrion-crows, jays, and—not least though last—sparrow-hawks 
can be, and are, detrimental to a keeper’s best interests. Evidence of the 
