5 SEPTEMBER 1925, Page 17

CRUELTY TO A RARE BIRD

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin, —I enclose a paragraph which appeared in the Daily Mail of April 20th. In cases of this kind, unless a heavier fine than seven and sixpence is imposed, similar acts of an idle and vicious nature are bound to occur in the future. The fact of the youths being unaware that the bird they persecuted was a grebe is no excuse for such deliberate and wanton cruelty.—

, I am, Sir, &c., L. J. ROBEY. Maymyo Club, Upper Burma, July 11th.

[The paragraph records the fining of seven youths aged eighteen to twenty-six; at Keswick, for killing with great cruelty a great crested grebe which had come to live on the river Greta.—ED. Spectator.]