34 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



fication over such a matter. But what shall we 

 say of that writer whose masterly works on Eng- 

 lish rural life are familiar to everyone, who is 

 regarded as first among "lovers of nature," when 

 he relates that he invariably carried a gun when 

 out of doors, mainly with the object of shooting 

 any kingfisher he might chance to see, as the dead 

 bird always formed an acceptable present to the 

 cottager's wife, who would get it stuffed and keep 

 it as an ornament on her parlour mantelshelf! 



Happily for the kingfisher, and for human be- 

 ings who love nature, the old idea that beautiful 

 birds were meant to be destroyed for fun by 

 anyone and everyone, from the small-brained, 

 detestable cockney sportsman I have mentioned, 

 to the gentlemen who write books about the beau- 

 ties of nature, is now gradually giving place to 

 this new one — that it would be better to preserve 

 the beautiful things we possess. Half a century 

 before the author of "Wild Life in a Southern 

 Country" amused himself by carrying a gun to 

 shoot kingfishers, the inhabitants of that same 

 county of Wiltshire were bathed in tears — so I 

 read in an old Salisbury newspaper — at the tragic 

 death of a young gentleman of great distinction, 



