38 NATUHE NEAR LONDON. 



most during long frosts and snows. Unable to break 

 the chain that binds them to one spot, they die rather 

 than desert it. A miserable time, indeed, they had of 

 it that winter, but I never heard that any one proposed 

 feeding the rooks, the very birds that wanted it most. 



Swallows, again, were declared by many to be fewer. 

 It is not at all unlikely that they were fewer. The 

 wet season was unfavourable to them; still a good 

 deal of the supposed absence of swallows may be 

 through the observer not looking for them in the right 

 place. If not wheeling in the sky, look for them over 

 the water, the river, or great ponds ; if not there, look 

 along the moist fields or shady woodland meadows. 

 They vary their haunts with the state of the atmo- 

 sphere, which causes insects to be more numerous in 

 one place at one time, and presently in another. 



A very wet season is more fatal than the sharpest 

 frost ; it acts by practically reducing the births, leaving 

 the ordinary death-rate to continue. Consequently, 

 as the old birds die, there are none (or fewer) to supply 

 their places. Once more let me express the opinion 

 that there are as many small birds round London as 

 in the country, and no measure is needed to protect 

 the species at large. Protection, if needed, is required 

 for the individual. Sweep the roads and lanes clear 

 of the birdcatchers, but do not prevent a boy from 

 taking a nest in the open fields or commons. If it 

 were made illegal to sell full-grown birds, half the evil 

 would be stopped at once if the law were enforced. 

 The question is full of difficulties. To prevent or 

 attempt to prevent the owner of a garden from shoot- 

 ing the bullfinches or blackbirds and so on that s.teal 



