114 "TRESPASSERS" 



But by trap and gun the slaughter still goes on, and 

 there is one remedy for it only the determined 

 expression of the will of the British people that it 

 will have British birds bullied no longer. 



For, as surely as a man has but one country, a bird 

 also has but one ; and he would be a bold disputant 

 who contended that this was only objectively, and 

 not to some extent also subjectively, true, in face of 

 the assertion by so calm a reasoner as Professor 

 Newton that it is the "passionate love of the old 

 home" that brings the migrant back to the old 

 nesting spot. But whether this be disputed or not 

 does not affect the practical fact that a bird has but 

 one country, that it breeds there, and that it will not go 

 to breed elsewhere. The Thrush that comes to us to 

 avoid the rigours of a northern winter will not stay to 

 nest with the home Thrushes, though the fact that the 

 latter remain in this country to breed is proof that the 

 former do not leave it because of any unsuitability of 

 climate or lack of food. It is not their country ; that 

 is all. They are not British members of the 

 species. Kill off your British-breeding birds, and no 

 summer migrants, extending their range from the 

 south, will face a sea passage that has not formed 

 part of the past history of their own compatriots, in 

 order to fill the places left vacant by the extirpated 

 indigenous birds ; no winter visitors, due away 

 northward to their own nesting countries, will remain 

 to take advantage of your empty trees and hedgerows. 

 You have made your wilderness : water it. 



In extenuation of the destruction of certain classes 

 of birds as the result of game-preserving, the plea is 

 often advanced that by the creation of protected 



