On this head I cannot but think that the Forestry
Com- mission nurse certain natural history fallacies and are too• drastic in their judgments. They have been roundly attacked in Scotland for condemning and destroying even game birds in and out of season ; but I am not thinking of these. At many shows of late they have exhibited a stall decorated with stuffed mammals and birds (generally in a moth-eaten state) and labelling them without qualification as harmful or harmless. Recently they have tried the experiment of delivering periodic lectures in front of these rather unlovely objects. The only lecturer I have actually heard put the native brown and the imported grey squirrel on much the same plane, damning both ; but he made amends by main- taining his personal affection for the jay, one of the birds put under the official ban.
Previous page
