From Perth to Kent Some of the difficulties of bird
protection are being experi- enced in a new sanctuary in the south of England. The place was preserved largely for the sake of saving the nesting ground of the Kentish plover. The trouble is that the absence of one enemy may encourage the presence of another. You may defend the sacred place from the egg-collector (who after all likes to encourage nesting) but lay it open to the rivalry of other birds : the gull may destroy the plover. There is a good deal of evidence from Scottish grouse moors to Kentish shingle beds that our gulls, even the little blackheaded gull, are becoming worse harpies than they were : the herring gulls quarter the moors for the eggs of the grouse and lesser gulls destroy the little dark eggs of the plover. As for the black backs, even the lesser, they destroy anything they can reach. The work of keeping a sanctuary is therefore not altogether easy or simple.
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