52 Proceedings. 



First, then, amongst the mental qualities which as it seems 

 to me assist those species which display them, I reckon 

 courage, whether shown in the pugnacity of the Tits and 

 Sparrows, or in other and less obvious ways, as in the choice 

 of a nesting- site, and in persevering in it under discouraging 

 persecution. Everyone must have seen in spring-time Mar- 

 tins turned out of their nests by Sparrows ; even Swifts are 

 sometimes so treated, the bold-faced uatruder, notwithstanding 

 the furious swoops and outcries of the larger birds, even 

 dashing out to meet them in the air and engaging in short 

 bursts of futile pursuit. I often see domestic Pigeons driven 

 from their food and chevied by Sparrows. We talk of the 

 "struggle for existence," but in summer-time, when bu-ds 

 most abound, there is food for all, and we see nothing of the 

 sort ; but there comes a day when the insects are dead, and 

 worms deep under ground, and it is then that the Sparrow 

 hunts the Chaffinch from the crumbs and the Missel Thrush 

 drives the Redwing from the rowan berries. The struggle 

 for existence is, in most cases, when any actual trial of 

 strength is made, a very brief struggle ; watch horses at grass 

 or poultry in a yard — one vicious little cob or ragged 

 cockerel is the acknowledged master ; the question was put 

 once and answered long since ; now when the chief chooses 

 to feed, his fellows give place. Were food scarce he would 

 starve his rivals as the bolder and hardier birds do the weaker 

 species. 



We err greatly in supposing that the balance of numbers 

 among our native birds remains unchanged until affected by 

 man. I know that, apart from direct action in game- 

 preserving, the indirect eflfect of man's works has been wide- 

 spread ; that the Wood Pigeon which was almost unknown 

 in the Lowlands has become abundant as the Sparrowhawks 

 disappeared ; that as the Short-eared Owl vanishes as a 

 resident species, owing to drainage, the Long-eared Owl 

 succeeds it as plantations get up. 



But how about the Hawfinch, which in Doubleday's time 

 was a rarity and now abounds? Again, within the last three 

 centuries, unaffected by human interference, two resident 



