Robbery from Nature 27 



'Birds of Oxfordshire,' 'as many as fifteen (barn-owls) 

 in a bird-stuffer's shop in May, all of which had been 

 recently received.' Nearly thirty years ago, when an 

 extraordinary plague of mice swarmed over the Border 

 farms, it was soon checked by the vast number of 

 carnivora attracted to the spot. Since then game- 

 keeper and collector have steadily pursued the work 

 of extermination, and as a result millions of little 

 pilferers have arisen to spoil husbandry. Sparrow 

 clubs and associations for suppressing wood-pigeons 

 do the work of hawk and falcon. So enormously 

 have starlings increased that it is almost certain they 

 will have to change their diet and steal grain and fruit 

 (which they will already do under stress of hunger), 

 instead of destroying grubs and insects ; just as the 

 rook, from the same cause, annually seems to delight 

 more in eggs and young birds. As to common linnet, 

 and finch, and thrush, and blackbird, there is no 

 gardener who does not wince under the increasing 

 extent of their depredations. 



This state of things is, in large measure, due to the 

 inordinate slaughter of birds of prey ; the doubt is, 

 whether the game-keeper or the collector is the more 

 to blame for it. The former began by thinning down 

 the golden and white-tailed eagles, the osprey and 

 buzzards, the kite, merlin, and peregrine and sparrow- 

 hawk to a point after which a specimen is more or 

 less of a rarity ; and the other completes the work of 

 destruction. Probably the dealer is, in both cases, at 



