Bird Protection and the Collector

Abstract

THE protection and preservation of wild birds in Great Britain is in these days beset with difficulties of many kinds; but as regards especially the preservation of the rarer birds of our country, the one great and ominous danger is the individual whom Sir Herbert Maxwell has described as “the cursed collector.” At this time of the year the professional collector of eggs infests the country wherever rare species are known or discovered to breed, and wherever clutches are to be had which have their value in the market. At all seasons of the year the professional collector of birds is despoiling the land of the noble, the beautiful, the unfamiliar forms of bird-life that hide in diminished numbers among little-frequented commons and heaths, mountains and lakes, woodlands and forests, or visit the country in small numbers and nest at their peril, with a price upon their heads and upon every egg they lay.