A Black Record
Are there no naturalists in the House of Commons, which was once famous for its debates on the protection of birds? A question concerning birds which apparently were conspicuous on the bill of fare elicited the strange information that they were " black plover" from Lincolnshire and the Fens. To this bit of strange information Mrs. Gould (who is Socialist Member for Hendon) added off her own bat that it was "con- sidered advisable . . . that plover should be used as often as possible in the House of Commons restaurant." Consider the true facts. First, there is no such bird as the black plover in Lincolnshire or anywhere else. Second, it has been officially decreed that the plover is the best of all the farmer's friends among birds, and it has been specially protected for that reason alone. Third, the birds were supplied at the very height of the close season. Was ever urban ignorance more lamentably illustrated in high places?
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