THE NIGHT-BIRD O ugly bird, who spread'st thy wing To the dark night with sad refrain. Teach me thy sorrows, woeful bird, In evil fate! Yet in one thing Thy lot from mine doth differ quite : Ne'er save at night-time dost thou grieve, But I must sorrow day and night! CRADLE SONG Come, sweet Sleep, O Slumber, draw near! Sleep, my little one, sleep and rest, Sleep, my babe, success thee attend, Sleep, my babe, may thy race be well run, Glorious and brave like the conquering sunNinna, my dear one, oh, ninna. Lovelier than all is thy dear face, As more than all grasses the corn hath grace- Sweet smells my pet as a jasmine star, Three rosy apples hang on the tree; ''Ninna' signifies lullaby. Three pears hang on the pear-tree wild; Christ has created thee! Angels of rest The holy saints from Rome all came Thee to her breast Holy Mary will fold, Sleep! come and bring sweet violets and roses, All my words with their sweet refrain, LILY WOLFFSOHN. VOL. XLII-No. 248 TT THE PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS It is now close upon thirty years since the first attempt was made to protect our wild birds by Act of Parliament. Prior to that, the only protection afforded by the law was to those various birds which come under the denomination of game.' But the number of species so protected was small; and the spirit in which our ancestors made the Game Laws was very different from the spirit which has impelled recent Parliaments to pass the various Wild Birds' Protection Acts. The following were the only birds legally protected before 1869, and are still the only ones which come within the legal definition of game in England and Scotland: the pheasant, partridge, grouse, black-game, ptarmigan, and bustard. In Ireland, in addition to these, certain protection is extended by the law to the landrail, woodcock, snipe, quail, wild-duck, widgeon, and teal. We have, no doubt, to thank the sporting spirit of our forefathers for preserving (at the cost of many human lives and much human bloodshed and suffering) several at least of these species from complete extermination. In the case of the bustard their efforts have been of no avail; and this bird, which at the end of last century bred on the South Downs of Sussex and ranged over Salisbury Plain, has become extinct since the year 1838, except as a rare straggler from the continent of Europe. The need of a legal close time is well illustrated by the history of the capercaillie in these islands. The capercaillie, which is to all intents and purposes a game bird, was not included among the birds protected by law, and was completely exterminated towards the end of the eighteenth century. It was re-introduced into Scotland by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton in the year 1837, and has now re-established itself in the pine forests of Perthshire and the adjoining districts. There is one bird which enjoys the singular distinction of a special Act of Parliament for its protection. Pallas' sand-grouse, which has on several occasions left its Central Asian home and arrived on our shores in considerable numbers, is absolutely protected from destruction at all seasons by an Act passed in 1888. But the hope of its becoming established in Great Britain has not been fulfilled. The game birds are only some fifteen out of the 376 species which are recognised by the ornithological authorities as composing the British avifauna. The remainder might be ruthlessly slaughtered at all times, in all places, and for all purposes, even when they were nesting or rearing their young. It was evident that many species were in danger of complete extermination, and others were decreasing. In 1869 an Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds was passed, · which established a close time from the 1st of April to the 1st of August for the different species of sea birds therein mentioned, which included not only gulls, terns, puffins, guillemots and the like, but also the grebes and divers, the sheldrake and the Cornish chough. The sea birds have been exposed to peculiar danger from the easy target which they afford for a certain class of sportsman, who is no respecter of young birds or breeding seasons. He is content to shoot them down and leave them dead or wounded in the water; and he can reach them from a boat without having to trespass on any one's land. This Act was followed in 1872 by an Act to Protect Wild Birds in the Breeding Season, which set up a close time for some seventy specially mentioned kinds of birds, ranging from the bittern to the blackcap, the cuckoo to the curlew, the redstart to the robin, the siskin to the spoonbill, and the wren to the wryneck. It does not seem that either of these Acts was successful in attaining its object, for they were shortly followed, in 1876, by an Act for the Preservation of Wild-fowl. This Act proceeded to impose increased fines, which is commonly the sign that legislation of this sort has been a failure. The word 'wild-fowl' was defined, and comprised ducks, wild geese, plovers, snipe, and others of the same family. Such is the history of the matter down to the year 1880, when these three Acts were repealed and a fresh start was made. The previous attempts had been valuable as experiments. It was seen to be useless to attempt merely to protect certain defined species. A malefactor almost always managed to escape by protesting that he was in pursuit of some kind of bird which was not mentioned in the Act. The rural policeman, hearing a gun discharged as he was patrolling the cliffs, proceeded to the spot and discovered the malefactor reloading, whilst some mangled bird struggled in the waves or lay dead on an inaccessible ledge of rock. The malefactor, having given his name and address, was possibly summoned before the magistrates. He declared that the bird he had shot was, let us say, a black-winged stilt. The schedule of the Act was examined. No such name was found. Even if the prosecutor produced the corpse of the victim, there was often too much doubt to justify a conviction. In 1880, for the first time, an attempt was made to afford some protection to all our wild birds without exception; that is to say, to all the 376 British species during their breeding season. This was a step in the right direction, but it is needless to say that out of these 376 species many have only slight claims to the title of British birds. No legislation could succeed in saving their lives. Nor, on the whole, is it desirable to do so. Out of all the number of so-called British birds, 132 species spend the whole year with us. Some of these are abundant, such as the sparrow, the rook, and the blackbird, and are in no danger of being exterminated or even seriously diminished in numbers. Others are rare, in varying degrees of rarity; for who shall presume to define what is a rare bird? Such are the golden eagle, the Cornish chough, and the great skua, a member of the gull family, which only breeds in two of the Shetland Islands; these but for protection must inevitably soon become extinct in the United Kingdom. The summer migrants, which arrive regularly in the spring and leave in the autumn after breeding here, amount to fifty-two species; some again rare, as the oriole and the osprey; others common in all parts of England, as the swallow and the willow-wren. This makes 184 different sorts which nest in the United Kingdom, or attempt to do so; for their rarity or their gay plumage too often costs them their lives before they have had a chance of rearing a brood. To all these birds which breed here, a close time, which forbids their destruction during the nesting season, is of the utmost value, and could the law but be rigorously enforced there can be no doubt that many diminishing species would materially increase in numbers. Our regular winter visitors amount to thirty-seven; many of them are uncommon, but of these none of course breed here, and they consequently do not require or benefit by the close time. This leaves more than 150 species which have only once or twice perhaps straggled to our shores from the most various parts of the globe; as examples, the Egyptian vulture, the flamingo, or the rustic bunting may be quoted. No Acts of Parliament and no penalties could ever succeed in naturalising these birds in Britain. Much foolish clamour and senseless abuse is often directed against ornithologists, whose greatest ambition is to add some new bird to the British list, for shooting the rarest birds as soon as they see them. The charge may be true, but the offence is, on the whole, excusable. If a vulture is foolish enough to perch on the rocks in Cork Harbour, as one did in 1843, it must expect to be shot and placed in a museum. It is far better, in the cause of science, that the three rustic buntings which landed on our shores should be captured and identified than that their lives should be spared. It is impossible to determine, with any degree of certainty, the species of such stragglers without shooting them, and the sacrifice of their lives adds to ornithological knowledge, and may possibly throw light on the mysterious laws of |