196 ON THE SCARCITy OF BIRDS IN CERTAIN DISTRICTS. 



higher, so that the tops at a distance look like an inclined plane. The 

 same thing I have observed in larch and fir trees farther inland. Thus 

 have I proved to my ©wn satisfaction, and I trust to that of my readers, 

 that the growing of the trees, described in "The Naturalist," is owing to 

 the hard wind, although so far inland. 



Macdvff, Banff, June Wth., 1856. 



ON THE SCARCITY OF BIRDS IN CERTAIN DISTRICTS. 



BY THOMAS FULLER, ESQ. 



Pursuing this subject, I beg leave to remark, in addition to the obser- 

 vations of Mr. Clement Jackson, in ''The Naturalist" for this month, certain 

 causes coming under my notice. For a long period of time I have expe- 

 rienced, with great annoyance and vexation, numbers of my friends impressed 

 with the notion that birds are destructive to vegetation, and to fruits par- 

 ticularly, and with such ideas have waged continual war against them. A 

 neighbour, living a short distance from me, said, exultingly, a few days 

 back, that he had shot more than six hundred birds of various kinds about 

 his garden during the last year. Another instance occurred this spring, 

 whilst walking with a friend to a village at some little distance. Passing 

 the house of an acquaintance, we were recognised, and invited to look 

 round the grounds, etc. When near the garden the report of a gun was 

 heard, and presently two youths appeared : they had been shooting birds for 

 preservation of the fruit, and one of them produced from the capacious 

 pocket of his shooting-jacket several specimens of beautiful Thrushes, with 

 lovely spotted breasts and golden eyes. This was in April, at a time of 

 the year when nearly all birds have nests and eggs, and the cock birds, 

 particularly the Blackbird and the Thrush, charm us with their sweet, wild 

 notes. Soon after this I visited a friend in Berkshire, where I expected 

 full enjoyment of the delightful harmony of these lovely little songsters, 

 but had the disappointment to find the same system of destruction pre- 

 vailing — scarcely a day passed without the gardener announcing the capture 

 of one or more nests, either with eggs or young birds. Blackbirds, Thrushes, 

 Linnets, all were alike victims. 



Another element of destruction is also actively developing itself — in the 

 increase of domestic cats, if I may judge from this neighbourhood. We 

 are absolutely overrun with them. It is worthy of remark, these animals, 

 in suburbs and villages, are not to be kept inside of houses as in cities 

 and towns; their nature and habits lead them to roam in the shrubberies 

 and gardens, where they propagate and pursue their feline propensities, 

 destroying or scaring away everything of feathered existence, except a few 



