WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACTS. 185 



birds might well be protected in Shropshire. It has been 

 suggested that the great increase in recent years of sparrows 

 and of wood-pigeons, has been owing to the killing down 

 of their enemies, the raptores. It may be that by protecting 

 such birds of prey as those just mentioned, their ravages may 

 be checked ; whether this be so or not, it is hardly likely that 

 birds of game will suffer much, or that anything but good will 

 result from the encouragement given to nature's scavengers 

 and vermin destroyers. 



