[leps-talk] value
Neil Jones
neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk
Mon Jun 3 12:58:49 EDT 2002
On Monday 03 June 2002 05:57 am, Anne Kilmer wrote:
>
> Well, we still have no name, no exact place, and so it's a rural myth,
> isn't it? Unless Bart can authenticate it.
Of course it is, but you did ask me directly about it so I supplied the
original story. However, It is not unfortunately entirely unbelievable. Nuts
exist everywhere in every walk of life. I am seeking further details myself.
Thanks, Neil.
> I've been reading about those cuckoo butterflies; fascinating stuff.
> They overspecialized and tend to kill the ant colony they inhabit. Not a
> successful gambit, and a lesson in that for all of us. Eleven months (or
> 23) is just too long to pass yourself off as a graduate student while
> eating all your classmates. Someone in authority is bound to notice,
> unless you publish.
> It will be their fate to be maintained as a curiosity by their fans, and
> uphill work it is, too.
> In any case, my point was that collectors of today wouldn't do that,
> just as we do not now collect bird's eggs as a hobby. The mood of the
> times is different.
I am afraid Anne that there is still a problem with a _tiny_ number of these
people who go after birds eggs. I enclose an article from a British newspaper
below. As I said obsessives and nuts exist in every grouping of people.
The problem is that only last week a near _parallel_ example with butterflies
was _defended_ on these lists!. That does a great deal of harm to _all_
studies of lepidoptera. To quote this obsessive,
"Incidentally, one thing about myself you may like to know is that I am a
big hoarder of rare material, anything rare I like a big fat series of.."
If you want to know more about "He who must not be named" and the ranting and
raving of his obsessions, paranoia and delusions of grandeur, look in the
Leps-L archive for his "historic" (As he described them himself) postings.
http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/faq/ for more details. As you will see I even
have his picture. I have _really_ researched this case so I know what I am
talking about.
_Of_ course_ he isn't typical but quite scandalously he still gets
defenders despite the obvious lunacy of his claims. Some people are really
politically naive.
> White hats and white horses have been issued to collectors and breeders,
> and, sadly, the developers are still the villains. That's where we need
> to aim our educational efforts and prayers.
> Right, Charles?
> Cheers
> Anne
>
Court told serial egg thief
may be first to be jailed
By Paul Peachey
17 August 2001
One of Britain's most prolific egg-collecting
criminals could
be the first person to be jailed under new
wildlife protection
legislation.
Police officers found three goshawk eggs and
four
goosander eggs during a raid on Barry Sheavils'
home in
June, only a month after being fined £1,000 for
the illegal
possession of 1,300 rare eggs, South East
Northumberland
magistrates' court was told yesterday.
Sheavils, 41, of Blyth, Northumberland, told
police he was
given the goshawk and goosander eggs by an
unnamed
man as consolation for the loss of his large
collection after
his conviction in May. The eggs were donated to
the Royal
Museum in Scotland.
The court was told that he was also stopped on
marshes in
Norfolk nine days after he was fined with other
convicted
egg collectors but was not charged.
Sheavils has convictions for collecting rare
birds' eggs
stretching back to 1987 and has previously
tried to take
golden eagle eggs from a nest. Jonathan Moore,
for the
prosecution, told the magistrates: "The man is
a persistent
offender. It has been heard that he is stopping
this activity
but quite clearly this has not happened."
Sheavils admitted possessing the eggs and also
possessing amphetamine sulphate, a class B
drug, which
he told police he used to stay awake during his
"egging"
activities. He will be sentenced next month.
If Sheavils is jailed it would be the first
time under the
Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000. The Act
gave courts
the power to jail convicted egg collectors for
a maximum of
six months and came into force in January.
After the hearing, Keith Morton, an ivestigator
for the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "Mr
Sheavils is up
there with the very worst of Britain's
egg-collecting
criminals. Serious egg collectors like Sheavils
target the
very rarest species. While no humane person
should wish
to see anyone go to jail, there can be few egg
collectors
who deserve it more than Mr Sheavils. He has
had many
chances to stop this and many warnings in the
past and he
has continued regardless."
Sheavils featured in a Channel 5 documentary in
1997 in
which he admitted: "Egg collecting is my life,
I just love
going. I could never get it out of system."
* A 57-year-old former miner who sold part of a
2,000-strong egg collection was given a
three-month
suspended jail sentence yesterday.
The full extent of Michael Davidson's obsession only
became clear when RSPB officers raided his home
in Tyne
and Wear and found hundreds of eggs. They
confiscated a
computer and took a year to decipher passwords
which
protected computer files documenting his
exploits.
--
--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve
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