are inadmissible, and that they have no moral right to such a course of procedure, compared with which the
conduct o f the old Whitechapel bird-catcher is an honest calling.
The following extract from ‘ Land and W a te r’ o f August 29, 1868, embodying a le tter to ‘The Times,’
aptly bears out my previous remarks on the wholesale destruction recently dealt out to certain species.
“ N o words can convey any adequate idea of the wanton, wicked cruelty perpetrated by these ruthless
slayers o f unoffending birds. Broken-winged birds are abandoned, and drift away to perish by slow
degrees; badly wounded birds are allowed to flutter and struggle in the bottom o f the boat, their sufferings
unheeded and uncared fo r ; while many fearfully h urt manage to reach the shore to die in lingering agony:
and, lamentable to say, all this butcher}’ 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 o f 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 o f having last year killed with his own gun a t Flamborough Head
4000 of these gulls—and th at 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 o f these plumassiers has visited various
breeding-stations o f the Kittiwake in Scotland, and laid his plans for having supplies of birds sent to him.
At Ailsa Craig alone, he gave an order for 1000 Gulls per week, and stated th at he was prepared to
take any quantity. T o 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 ‘ T he T im e s’ for August 21st, it will
be seen th at an Act has this year received the Royal Assent for the preservation o f sea-fowl in the
Isle o f Man, and that its preamble states th at ‘ the said birds are considered o f great importance to the
fishermen in guiding them to shoals of fish, and also for sanitary purposes by removing offal o f fish from the
harbours and shores.’ ”
Again, in a communication addressed to the ‘ Zoologist’ for January 1869, Mr. John Cordeaux says:—
“ T he following paragraph is copied from the ‘ Guardian ’ o f November 1 8 ,1 8 6 8 . Comment is unnecessary.
‘ On a strip o f 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 o f starvation in emptied nests. Commander Knocker, there stationed, who reports these
facts, saw two boats loaded above the gunwales with dead b ird s ; and one party o f eight guns killed 1100
in a week.’ |
Nature on the other hand herself a t times effects similar wholesale destruction. Thus a severe w inter may
prove fatal to many thousands o f the feathered creation: in SUpport 0f this assertion I annex some extracts
from various sonrces. Under the heading “ Severity of the Weather” we read in - Land and W a te r' for
January 26, 1867.
“ We receive from various parts o f the country accounts of the effects of the recent cold upon all kinds of
game. A correspondent of the ‘ Inverness Courier' says that in Strathnairn, in common with other parts of
the country, not a sprig of heather is visible anywhere; and there can be no doubt that if the snow and frost
continue any length o f time the destruction among all kinds o f game will be beyond all precedent. Already
Mnirfowl a re Hocking in thousands to the low-lying grounds; and on Saturday last we noticed the
bireh-wood around Craggie literally swarming with them. A farmer in Strathnairn told us that one day
lately, as he entered his stable, the entire area of his courtyard was covered as ‘ thick as they could stand ’
with grouse picking up any thing they could get among the dung-heaps; and similar ■ gatherings' could he
told by many other farmers.”
Again, in the same journal, for August 3, 1867, Mr. Henry Lee, writing of the “ destruction of small
birds by rain,” says: —
My friend Dr. Millar, o f Bethnal House, Bethnal Green, writes me as follows :—‘ Good evidence o f the
severity o f the rain during Thursday night (July 25th) has been afforded here in the destruction o f nearly
all the sparrows which congregate in our trees. My under-gardener picked op one hundred and twenty-four
on the following morning; and in sweeping up the fallen leaves o f to-day the dead birds are being found in
considerable numbers. We estimate th at more than two hundred were killed.’ "
Mr. E. H. Rodd, writing to me from Penzance under the date o f January 8, 1867, says, “ I foresaw that
there was hard weather somewhere, although the thermometer never showed a greater amount of frost than
one degree, which was the lowest reading h e re ; 60 miles to tbe eastward the reading was on Wednesday
nine degrees above zero, and on Thursday only live: so much for our climate. The heavy weather to the
eastward has driven millions o f Linnets, Starlings, Larks, Redwings, Fieldfares, Peewits, aud Golden Plovers
to this district.’’ As I was a t the time on a visit to Lord Falmouth at Tregothnan, most of the facts
mentioned by Mr. Rodd came under my own observation ; and I may add that the destruction of these birds
was immense; I myself saw lying dead on the frozen snow hundreds o f Starlings, Song-Thrushes, Missel-
Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares, but none o f the Common Blackbird, and noticed that several o f the
weakly birds were attacked and eaten by the Rooks, which, themselves in an exhausted state, flocked round
the house, and a t times even approached the drawing-room windows.
Violent and heavy gales also frequently lend their aid towards the destruction o f bird-life, as evidenced by