Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/254

230 would allow them to do so. I believe most fully in the principle of "live and let live," and consider it a thousand pities that certain birds—e.g. game—should be protected at the expense of the extinction of certain other beautiful birds—viz. the Jay and the Magpie. Of course I well know that these two are inveterate egg-stealers, nor would I for a moment recommend too many to be kept on an estate, but a pair or two add much interest and beauty to the landscape; and I hold that no true sportsman would utterly exterminate these birds, even though they caused him to lose a few gamebirds' eggs every year. In the same way I am glad to say that the stately though destructive Heron is not utterly exterminated on our trout streams, and I hope devoutly that it will be many a long day before such is the case. To sum up, I do not think that any real assistance can be expected from public bodies in the matter of bird protection. They hesitate to devote public funds to matters which they, in common with many officers of the law, look upon purely as a question of sentiment; and, therefore, if any real good is to be done, our sheet-anchor is private enterprise. We have legislation dealing with the matter, but unfortunately those who are most eager for legislation very often, when they have got it, are the most remiss in seeing that it is enforced.—

[Among the most destructive agents to bird-life, I would instance village children and Cats. On the Surrey hills I have absolute knowledge of the eggs of Blackbirds, Thrushes, and other birds having been cooked and eaten when a successful day's collecting has been accomplished, such as the acquisition of more than fifty eggs by one boy alone. During two seasons, among the many nests constructed in my garden at Warlingham, not a single brood was reared. A lady in my immediate neighbourhood possessed three "magnificent" Cats, as I heard them described. These brutes were pampered by day, and always turned out at night. All my garden nests were rifled when the young were nearly fledged. One of these furies I privately buried; the other two escaped many dangers. These Cats were practically bird-eaters.—]