182
COUNTESS OF WARWICK'S RECEPTION.
" I am one of those who think that more good is likely to result from
proper instruction in natural history given at elementary and technical
schools than from an attempt to enforce Acts of Parliament and Orders in
Council which cannot but be repugnant to all high-spirited schoolboys.
" But there is another course open which has been productive of so much
good in localities where it has been tried, that it deserves wider recognition.
I refer to the examples of those landowners who have become convinced of the
necessity of thinking for those dependent upon them who will not, or do not,
think for themselves. We know too well from experience what is usually the
result when a gamekeeper is permitted to carry a gun and shoot what he
likes. In most cases when a keeper is allowed to use his own discretion he
speedily proves that he has none. He too often has no knowledge of the
habits of the creatures which he destroys, and evinces no sort of curiosity to
learn anything at all about them. All he knows is that they cross his path and,
not being game, he slays them. It behoves the employer of such a man to look
after him and put a check upon his destructive propensities. This has been
done in several places I could name, and with the best results. In Scotland
the Osprey, as a breeding species, has been saved from extermination by
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, by Sir John Grant of Rothiemurcus, and by-
Lady Ashburton at Loch Luichart in Ross-shire. Similarly the Golden
Eagle is protected at Glen Tana by orders of Sir William Cunliffe Brooks. At
Bishopswood, Herefordshire, the keepers of Mr. H. M'Calmont have been repri-
manded for killing Honey Buzzards, and have now strict orders to leave all such
birds as appear new and strange to them unmolested for the future. The Golden
Oriole, a regular spring visitor, is so well protected in Kent that it has been
my good fortune to see the hen-bird sitting on her nest within a short
distance from the house of her protector. If the example of these pro-
prietors were more generally followed in other parts of the country, and
landowners, instead of leaving everything to chance, would ascertain what
species should or should not be protected and give directions accordingly,
we shall once more see the woods and fields tenanted by creatures that have
long been banished, and rejoice in the observance of the motto 'Live and
let live.' "
Prof. G. S. Boulger, F.L.S., then spoke from the botanical side, on the
Extermination of Rare and Common Plants. He said : "There are
indisputably causes of extermination that are inevitable, such as the spread
of building operations and agriculture, with the draining, weeding, and
grubbing up of noxious plants or of too voluminous hedgerows that accom-
pany them. Some of our rarer orchids unfortunately occupied eligible building
sites, and the diminished area of fen and marsh land throughout the country
has necessarily led to the disappearance of such plants as the Sundews and
the Grass of Parnassus from many districts. Farmers can hardly be blamed
for rooting up the barberry, the fertile cause of "rust" in wheat, or cottagers
for destroying the Deadly Nightshade, the fruits of which their infant
children will persist in mistaking for cherries.
" There are, however, several other causes of extermination not only
of rare, but of common plants that might well be checked. Among these
are attempts to transfer wild plants to gardens for the purpose of cultivating
them when they are often unsuited for the purpose, the wholesale rooting up
or cutting of plants by dealers for sale in the streets of our large towns, and