THE IMMORTAL NIGHTINGALE 247 



supporters the bird-fanciers, and their servants the 

 bird-catchers, who take the chief risk, are in league to 

 defeat the law. Also that very many country magis- 

 trates deal tenderly with offenders so long as they re- 

 spect "game." A partridge, and probably a rabbit, 

 is of more consequence to the sportsman on the bench 

 than a small, plain brown bird, or than many linnets 

 and goldfinches. The law, we know, is effectual when 

 it has a strong public feeling on its side ; the feeling 

 is not yet universal and nowhere strong enough, or as 

 strong as bird-lovers would wish it to be, but it exists 

 and has been growing during the last half a century, 

 and that feeling, supported by the improved laws which 

 it has called into being, is having its effect. This w^e 

 know from the increase during recent years in several 

 of the greatly persecuted species. The goldfinch is 

 a striking example. The excessive drain on this species, 

 one of the favourites of the lover of birds in cages, had 

 made it exceedingly rare throughout the country 

 twenty years ago, and in many counties it was, if not 

 extinct, on the verge of extinction. Then a turn came 

 and a steady increase until it had ceased to be an un- 

 common bird, and if the increase continues at the same 

 rate for another decade it will again be as common as 

 it was fifty years ago. This change has come about 

 as a direct result of the Orders giving it all the year 

 round protection, obtained by the county and borough 

 councils throughout the country. 



The nightingale has not so increased, nor has it in- 

 creased at all ; it is not so hardy a species, and albeit 



