THE SACRED BIRD 87 



those that prey on mice, moles, wasps, and small 

 birds; also the owls, and all the birds of the crow 

 family, saving the rook on account of the landowner's 

 sentiment in its favour; and after them the nightjar 

 and the woodpeckers and most other species above 

 the size of a chaffinch, are treated as " vermin." 

 The case of the keeper who shot all the nightingales 

 because their singing kept the pheasants awake at 

 night sounds like a fable. But it is no fable; there 

 are several instances of this having been done, all 

 well authenticated. 



Here is another case which came under my own eyes. 

 It is of an old heronry in a southern county, in the 

 park of a great estate about which there was some 

 litigation a few years back. On my last visit to this 

 heronry at the breeding season I found the nests 

 hanging empty and desolate in the trees near the 

 great house, and was told that the new head keeper 

 had persuaded the great nobleman who had recently 

 come into possession of the estate to allow him to 

 kill the herons because their cries frightened the 

 pheasants. They were shot on the nests after breed- 

 ing began; yet the great nobleman who allowed this 

 to be done is known to the world as a humane and 

 enlightened man, and, I hear, boasts that he has 

 never shot a bird in his life! He allowed it to be done 

 because he wanted pheasants for his sporting friends 

 to have their shoot in October, and he supposed that 

 his keeper knew best what should be done. 



Another instance, also on a great estate of a great 

 nobleman in southern England. Throughout a long 



