Appendix No. 1. 
X 
suggestion of Mr. E. N. Buxton. Mr. Buxton was strongly possessed 
with the idea that if jays abounded other song-birds would go off, because 
jays were the greatest robbers of nests. Of course, the obvious answer 
was—well, let everything have free play, and the jays will be kept down 
by their natural enemies, or by the absence of food, to their proper pro¬ 
portion. [Hear, hear.] On the other hand it might be urged that birds 
of prey were kept down by game-preservers to such an extent that a hawk 
was looked upon with as much wonder as an elephant [laughter], and 
as for an eagle, such a bird was now rarely seen in England. Mr. Buxton 
had the majority of the Conservators with him when he proposed that 
jays should be trapped, not shot; they very rightly considered that the 
firing of guns should be entirely abolished within the limits of the forest. 
Therefore, if any members of the Club heard the report of a gun in the 
woods, they might be perfectly certain that it was unlawfully fired in 
direct defiance of the bye-laws, and they should try to ascertain the name 
of the offender and forward it to Sir Thomas Nelson. He thought that 
Sir Fowell Buxton’s idea was that some kind of agreement should be 
come to between the various landowners, occupiers, and owners of shoot¬ 
ing in the district. Of course they might shoot game, but he supposed it 
would take the form of agreeing not to shoot birds of prey. Whether 
anything could be done effectively in that direction he could not say. Sir 
Fowell himself was probably the largest landowner in the district, except 
Mr. Maitland ; there were then Mr. Edwards, of Beach Hill, and others 
Sewardstone way who might be brought in. Sir Fowell Buxton had 
mentioned to him that Lord Leicester, the largest landowner in the 
county of Norfolk, had resolved to stop the killing of birds of prey on his 
estates, although he had a great deal of game. He also knew that Mr. 
Gurney had given orders to his keepers not to destroy birds of prey. 
Whether the keepers obeyed the orders was quite another thing [laughter], 
but he believed this w T as decidedly Mr. Gurney’s wish. There was only 
one other point to which he could allude with any benefit, and that was 
as to the ubiquitous sparrow. Colonel Bussell, of Stubbers, had for many 
years waged a most desperate war on sparrows, his desire being to protect 
the martin from their ravages. He had been most extraordinarily 
successful. He found that the martins w r ere almost disappearing from 
the country. On his house their nests, which had been numerous, were 
reduced to two, and he found that the reason of this w r as entirely that the 
sparrows took possession of the martins’ nests, and, being the stronger 
birds, drove them out. He set to work to destroy sparrows in every 
possible way. He laid lines of grain for them and shot them; and he 
shot them while they were actually trying to take possession of the nests, 
using a very small charge of powder so as not to destroy the nests. He 
gave rewards to boys and gardeners and everybody about the place to 
destroy the sparrows. He began about a dozen years ago, and the first 
year his two nests increased to seven ; the second year to 23 ; the third 
year to 47 ; and the last time he (Mr. Johnston) was at Stubbers, which 
