WILD BIRDS PRESERVATION ACTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Allow me to point out that there is a more wantonly destructive class than even the Birmingham oologists, who are to be found throughout the length and breadth of the land. These are the gamekeepers, whose work of annihila- tion must now be well on to its consummation. Owls, kestrels, and other harmless birds are trapped, shot, poisoned, in sheer ignorance, and done to death under the imputation of vermin. The consequence is, that rats and mice, their natural food, have now attained to the dignity of an invading army.
Why all this wholesale slaughter? The invariable answer is, for the sake of the pheasants. Who benefits by them ? A few sportsmen for three or four days in the course of a year, and their host, who finds some substantial compensation for his keeper's wages and other outlay in a cheque from his poulterer. The whole system is a relic of the feudal times, and only wisdom in time will save the Game Laws.—I am, Sir, RAYSTICITS.
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