Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/227

 LOSE upon twenty years have passed since I contributed an article on "Game Preservation and its Relation to the Protection of Birds" to the Westminster Review. Conditions are not what they were then, but still are not what they ought to be. The deadly poletrap, a deceitful lure, has been declared illegal. An unbaited trap, usually circular in shape, was chained to the top of a post in some open position; the passing bird—hawk, owl, cuckoo, nightjar, even the harmless pipit, saw this promising rest, alighted, and sprung the trap; after an ineffectual flutter it hung head downwards, held by its lacerated legs, until the keeper chose to come to end its agonies. Declared illegal—yes, but has it gone entirely? Do those who are responsible for seeing that laws are respected ever cross the wild Welsh or Scottish moorlands with their eyes open? Do those who shoot, and perchance take their place on the Bench to deal out justice to that terrible criminal, the poacher, always instruct their keepers that no illegal traps must be set? Is it not more frequently urged upon these underlings that they must keep down the "vermin" without any instructions as to methods to be employed?

Yet, it is only fair to state, the present generation of land-owners and sportsmen includes a much larger number of men who take pride in protecting persecuted species, willingly sacrificing many head of game to the rapacious visitors. On many large estates bitterns, harriers, eagles, ospreys, and other rare birds may come and go without danger; there are estates, too, which are