Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/354

322 Birds singing during Thunderstorm.—It was curious to notice, during a heavy thunderstorm on May 23rd, many Thrushes singing most lustily, and also a few Chaffinches. The terrible peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and the deluge of rain did not disturb them in the least. Are there many species of birds which sing under such conditions?— (4, Richmond Hill, Bath).

The Protection of Wild Birds and their Eggs.—I have long had it on my mind to address a few words on this subject to 'The Zoologist,' and my pen has been quickened by the receipt during the last few days of letters and circulars from sundry sources inviting an exchange of eggs. My egg-collecting days have long since gone over, and though, admittedly, I once on a time derived an immense amount of pleasure from the hobby, it was never associated with such wanton and wholesale spoliation as obtains in certain districts nowadays—in flagrant and contemptuous defiance of the law. I write in no narrow-minded spirit, for I am very tolerant of egg-collecting in a humane fashion by boys who have a penchant for natural history, and of egg-collecting in reason by scientific ornithologists; but my hobby just now, and for the future, is the devotion of my energies to the preservation of birds, and the protection, within certain limits, of their eggs. Since the middle of April I have been wandering about the country, studying birds in their breeding haunts; I wound up my tour by staying for a week at a very pretty spot in one of the western counties, which boasts a stringent and not altogether ill-conceived "order" for the protection of sundry wild birds and their eggs during the summer months. I say "not ill-conceived" advisedly, for some of the "orders" of a kindred nature issued by County Councils elsewhere can only be regarded as legislative absurdities. However, this by the way. As for any heed or respect being paid to these "orders" in the majority of cases, it is out of the question to expect such a thing; while the following will illustrate the lengths to which contempt for the same can go. Before the end of my sojourn in the county to which I have particularly referred, I found that many of the boys for miles round were in the habit of collecting eggs for a certain individual in the neighbourhood, and of course were paid for them. This I heard incidentally had been going on for years. If ever I met a boy on the road, and enquired if he had any eggs, the answer was sure to be, "Yes; but I'm going to take them to." I went to one boy's home, and glanced over the result of his depredations; scores and scores of eggs, most of them belonging to our commoner summer migrants, in all stages of incubation, and many of them of no value whatsoever, met my eye. Nests were taken wholesale as well as eggs, and in the nests were placed slips of paper purporting to bear the dates on which the various clutches were taken. Such dates were mostly imaginary, as I had ocular proof; but this is a detail.