Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/386

354 prosecution should rest with a private individual. It is not the ornithologist who takes one clutch for scientific purposes who does the harm, but the professional collector who decimates whole colonies time after time. I frankly own that I am indebted for a great deal of my knowledge of the various nesting-places, resorts, and habits of some of our rarest birds to men who, unfortunately, are sometimes tempted by the ridiculously high prices paid by collectors to shoot these birds in the breeding-season, for the sake of their plumage; but I strongly maintain that it is the collectors who are the most to blame—qui facit per alium facit per se—and not these men who are not too well endowed with this world's goods, and who, most of them, are decent fellows, struggling to earn an honest livelihood. Only this season I have known, in the county, of Cormorants being shot on the coast; Dotterel on the wolds; a Honey Buzzard, Turtle Doves, and Nightjars in the plains, in full breeding plumage, and in open defiance of the law; but what can I do? As Mr. Southwell truly remarks, even if one felt inclined to take up these cases, would it do any good? The penalties are so inadequate, and above all, though perhaps this may seem a selfish view to some, these men's mouths and others like them would be eternally closed, which when one is working up a county fauna would be a most serious thing. So that, however much one may deprecate and deplore the destruction of our favourites, the most that can be done is to see that this destruction is not wholesale. I have often procured immunity for the remainder by a little judicious expenditure of the current coin of the realm. These men rely on one's honour "not to give them away," so that one is compelled as it were to a certain extent to "bow oneself down in the house of Rimmon."

I forgot to mention that, while visiting the cliff-climbers at Bempton, where the Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Kittiwakes are as numerous as ever, I was told that a Guillemot, pure white except for its black head, had been frequently seen by them.

In conclusion: I was much interested in an article that appeared in 'The Zoologist' some little time since, on the time of day at which various birds lay their eggs. I have taken particular notice this season, and the conclusion I have come