INTRODUCTION.

are inadmissible, and that they have no moral right to such a course of procedure, compared with which the
c C SS ’ «

Thitec >] bird-cate Sie nest calling.
conduct of the old W hitechapel bird-catcher is an hone alling

. ; Tene 2 dying a letter to ‘The Times,’
The following extract from ‘ Land and Water’ of August 29, 1868, embodying ¢ e Times,

‘lous remarks > wholesale ‘uction recently dealt out to certain species.
aptly bears out my previous remarks on the wholesale destruction y dee |

«No words can convey any adequate idea of the wanton, wicked cruelty perpetrated by these ruthless

slavers of unoffending birds. Broken-winged birds are abandoned, and drift away to perish by slow

deerees ; badly wounded birds are allowed to flutter and struggle in the bottom of the boat, their sufferings

unheeded and uncared for; while many fearfully hurt manage to reach the shore to die in lingering agony :
and, lamentable to say, all this butchery is committed for no good purpose. We find a letter in ‘The
Times’ headed «A Plea for the Kittiwake,’ in which it is remarked that ‘some months ago a contributor to
a popular journal of natural history, writing from Lincolnshire, disclosed the fact that London and provincial
dealers now give one shilling per head for every “ White Gull” forwarded—that one man (a stranger drawn
thither for profitable occupation ) boasted of having last year killed with his own gun at Flamborough Head
4000 of these gulls—and that another seafowl-shooter had an order from a London house for 10,000, all for
the “ plume trade.” During the present summer,’ it is added, ‘ one of these plumassiers lias visited various
breeding-stations of the Kittiwake in Scotland, and laid his plans for having supplies of birds sent to him.
At Ailsa Crag alone, he gave an order for 1000 Gulls per week, and stated that he was prepared to
take any quantity. To meet this demand the tacksman of the rock spread his nets while the birds were
sitting on their newly hatched young, which were left in hundreds to perish on the ledges.’ By reference to
the letter from which the above is extracted, and which appeared in ‘The Times’ for August 21st, it will
be seen that an act has this year received the Royal Assent for the preservation of sea-fowl in the
Isle of Man, and that its preamble states that ‘the said birds are considered of great importance to the
fishermen in guiding them to shoals of fish, and also for sanitary purposes by removing offal of fish from the

harbours and shores.’ ’

Again, in a communication addressed to the ‘ Zoologist’ for January 1869, Mr. Johu Cordeaux says :—
“The following paragraph is copied from the ‘ Guardian’ of November 18, 1868. Comment is unnecerenae
‘On a strip of coast 18 miles long, near Flamborough Head, 107,250 sea-birds were destroyed by pleasure
parties in four months, 12,000 by men who shoot them for their feathers to adorn women’s hats, and 79,500
young birds died of starvation in emptied nests. Commander Knocker, there stationed, who reports these

rans killed 1100

facts, saw two boats loaded aboy > ounwales wi i i
é aded above the gunwales with dead birds; and one party of eight g

in a week.’ ”

Nature on tl Re ee
, ie other hand herself ; Saar ene , ‘- :
é erself at times effects similar wholesale destruction. Thus a severe winter may