x Appendix No. 1.
suggestion of Mr. E. N. Buxton. Mr. Buxton was strongly possessed
with the idea that if jays abounded other song-birds would go off, because
jays were the greatest robbers of nests. Of course, the obvious answer
was—well, let everything have free play, and the jays will be kept down
by their natural enemies, or by the absence of food, to their proper pro-
portion. [Hear, hear.] On the other hand it might be urged that birds
of prey were kept down by game-preservers to such an extent that a hawk
was looked upon with as much wonder as an elephant [laughter], and
as for an eagle, such a bird was now rarely seen in England. Mr. Buxton
had the majority of the Conservators with him when he proposed that
jays should be trapped, not shot; they very rightly considered that the
firing of guns should be entirely abolished within the limits of the forest.
Therefore, if any members of the Club heard the report of a gun in the
woods, they might be perfectly certain that it was unlawfully fired in
direct defiance of the bye-laws, and they should try to ascertain the name
of the offender and forward it to Sir Thomas Nelson. He thought that
Sir Fowell Buxton's idea was that some kind of agreement should be
come to between the various landowners, occupiers, and owners of shoot-
ing in the district. Of course they might shoot game, but he supposed it
would take the form of agreeing not to shoot birds of prey. Whether
anything could be done effectively in that direction he could not say. Sir
Fowell himself was probably the largest landowner in the district, except
Mr. Maitland ; there were then Mr. Edwards, of Beach Hill, and others
Sewardstone way who might be brought in. Sir Fowell Buxton had
mentioned to him that Lord Leicester, the largest landowner in the
county of Norfolk, had resolved to stop the killing of birds of prey on his
estates, although he had a great deal of game. He also knew that Mr.
Gurney had given orders to his keepers not to destroy birds of prey.
Whether the keepers obeyed the orders was quite another thing [laughter],
but he believed this was decidedly Mr. Gurney's wish. There was only
one other point to which he could allude with any benefit, and that was
as to the ubiquitous sparrow. Colonel Russell, of Stubbers, had for many
years waged a most desperate war on sparrows, his desire being to protect
the martin from their ravages. He had been most extraordinarily
successful. He found that the martins were almost disappearing from
the country. On his house their nests, which had been numerous, were
reduced to two, and he found that the reason of this was entirely that the
sparrows took possession of the martins' nests, and, being the stronger
birds, drove them out. He set to work to destroy sparrows in every
possible way. He laid lines of grain for them and shot them; and he
shot them while they were actually trying to take possession of the nests,
using a very small charge of powder so as not to destroy the nests. He
gave rewards to boys and gardeners and everybody about the place to
destroy the sparrows. He began about a dozen years ago, and the first
year his two nests increased to seven ; the second year to 23 ; the third
year to 47; and the last time he (Mr. Johnston) was at Stubbers, which