'THE GREATEST ENEMY TO BIRDS ARE ORNITHOLOGISTS'
Letter in The Zoologist, 1858
SIR -
In The Times of this morning there is an account of the appearance and destruction of a very rare bird, the hoopoe, which was shot by Mr. P. Matthews, of Ongar, on Wednesday last.
Permit me a brief space to protest against this foolish and cruel act.
The hoopoe is an unusual visitor to the British Isles, but has been met with in almost every county in England and in many parts of Wales.
It is a most amusing bird in its habits, of peculiar and beautiful plumage, and, being entirely insectivorous, is perfectly harmless both in our gardens and orchards.
They are numerous in many parts of Europe, particularly in the marshes near Bordeaux.
They have been known to breed in this country and would doubtless increase, but the moment they appear they are wantonly destroyed, as in the instance above recorded.
Owing to this spirit of persecution, many species of birds which were once numerous in Great Britain have entirely disappeared, and, year by year, many of the Sylviadae are becoming exceedingly scarce.
Last spring, a black redstart, being the first recorded in Hertfordshire, took up its abode in a friend's garden in this town, but it was destroyed notwithstanding our efforts to preserve it.
It has been stated, and I fear with some truth, that the greatest enemies to birds are ornithologists who should be their warmest friends.
No sooner is a strange bird discovered than war to the death is waged against it, and happy the pseudo-naturalist who succeeds in depriving the wretched little wanderer of its life.
Its fame is duly chronicled in the county newspaper, and a skilful taxidermist employed to set up "the specimen" and exhibit it to his admiring friends.
I am aware that all this is justified as being in the cause of science, but I would ask how is science advanced by the death of Mr. P. Matthew's hoopoe?
If a specimen were wanted, it could have been procured from France at the price of a few shillings.
Last year, in a journal devoted to Natural History, there appeared a notice of a nightingale in Devonshire.
Now, all naturalists are aware that, from some cause which we cannot explain, these sweet songsters seldom visit that or the adjacent county of Cornwall.
One would have thought that its very unusual appearance there would have been hailed with delight, and so it was, probably, by most of the residents.
But, in an unlucky hour. it was discovered by a naturalist, and - with indignation I write it - he barbarously and selfishly took its life.
"I was fortunate," writes this cruel philomelicide, "to shoot it as it was singing on the topmost sprig of a hawthorn bush.''
I protest as I write. I can hardly restrain my pen within the due bounds of courtesy, and I shall not trust myself to comment upon it.
But I indignantly deny to those destroyers the honourable name of naturalists.
To my mind, the great end and aim of the study of Natural History is to induce us to note the wonderful instinct by which each animal and bird procures its food, conceals and rears its young, and the adaptation to the situation and circumstances in which it has been placed by the Great Creator, and so to teach us "to look from nature up to nature's God".
Nor do I consider that in any case we are justified in depriving these innocent creatures of their life, even though it were necessary in the cause of science.
James S. Walker
New England House
Hitchin
Herts
April 19, 1858
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