27 JUNE 1903, Page 31

THE ETHICS OF BIRD'S-NESTING.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your correspondent "Eumaeus" writes in the Spectator of June 20th with a light heart of taking one or two eggs out of six robins' nests. Is he aware that taking a robin's egg brings misfortune on your near relation ? A young friend of mine was collecting eggs with the help of a village boy, and asked the latter to get an egg from a robin's nest near at hand. The boy refused, saying : " No, no, Master John, I daren't ; Bob Wilson took a robin's egg, and his father broke his leg that same week." Breaking one's leg is the proper penalty. It has always seemed to me hard that it should fall, not upon the guilty boy, but on his near relation. I condole with the relations of " Eumaeus."—I am,