Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/292

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Selborne Society is especially necessary in a populous country like our own. Our rarer animals and plants are gradually disappearing. Parliament has done what it could in passing wise laws, and County Councils are doing their best to carry them into effect. They can, however, effect comparatively little, unless they have the general support of the community.

We hear a good deal about the love of Nature, but it often takes an unfortunate form. It was said of King William Rufus that he "loved the tall deer like a father"; but what he loved was killing them, and I am afraid that the love of animals shown by many people is of that description.

Again, many show their love of flowers by gathering them; sometimes getting very soon tired of them and throwing them away. I have often been asked why I do not gather flowers when I am so fond of them; but I always say that is the very reason why I prefer to leave them where they are growing.

The use of the word sport is I think unfortunate. A great deal more interest is to be got out of animals by keeping them alive than by putting them to death.

Only recently a friend of mine saw seventeen Nightingales stuck upon a gamekeeper's cottage, and when he asked the gamekeeper why in the world he killed these charming little birds, the man said that they made such a noise at night that they kept his young Pheasants awake.

At the same time it must be confessed that the strict protecting which is necessary for the preservation of game does also