THE SACRED BIRD 87 



it — always adding to the list of creatures to be extir- 

 pated, and when these fail adding others. "I know 

 perfectly well," said a keeper to me, "that tlie nightjar 

 is harmless; I don't believe a word about its swallow- 

 ing pheasant's eggs, though many keepers think they do. 

 I slKH)t them, it is true, but only for pleasure." So it 

 has come about that wherever pheasants are strictly pre- 

 served, hawks — including 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 w'as 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 breeding 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 



