PRESERVING SPARROWS
SIR,—In your issue of April 16th Sir William Beach Thomas, in his article on the house sparrow, states that the R.S.P.B. desires to preserve all birds. No such declaration has ever been made by this Society, on whose Council are several ornithologists of international reputation and whose policy is the sane and scientific preservation of all birds not harmful to man. Does Sir William Beach Thomas imagine, for instance, that the R.S.P.B. allow marauding gulls and crows to feed on the eggs and young of our rarer birds breeding on the sanctuaries maintained by that body? The day of enlightened protection of our native wild life in all its forms has arrived, and it is hoped the public will realise the amount of real work the R.S.P.B. are doing in this direction.—I am, yours truly, R. PRESTON DONALDSON, Secretary, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 8z Victoria Street, London, S.W. r.
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