With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



ponds and rivers, the supply of fish was always infinitely 

 greater than it is now. The anglers' societies persist, 

 however, in declaring- war against all these enemies of 

 fish — otters and herons and kingfishers, sea-gulls, cormor- 

 ants, diving-birds and water-ousels, and all the rest. 

 They imagine that with their special schemes they 

 will succeed in refilling with fish the rivers they have 

 allowed to become poisoned with chemical drains. 



The sportsman kills off foxes, martens, polecats, 

 weasels, wild cats, badgers, otters, and " all birds of 

 prey with talons and arched wings," as an old forester once 

 expressed it to me. Hand-in-hand with the fisherman, 

 he wages war against the cormorant, the fishing-eagle, 

 and any number of other birds and beasts. They both 

 forget that the farmer might very well cherish similar 

 feelings and wage war against other creatures in the 

 same way. 



Fortunately there are exceptions to this rule, such 

 as we find among the Mecklenburg sportsmen, who are 

 satisfied to kill but few foxes rather than great numbers of 

 hares, and among those English landed proprietors who 

 leave its freedom even to the peregrine falcon, though 

 fully conscious that, together with its mate, it levies its 

 tribute daily upon the grouse. 



We feel strongly about the ruthless methods of the 

 south of Europe. 



But can we aftbrd to throw stones ? 



The singing-birds that nest in the north of Europe 

 wing their way twice every year over the length of 

 Italy, and their numbers are thinned always as they 



706 



