xx PREFACE 



lators put down ground game by passing the Ground Game 

 Act in 1880, and this so worked that the Hares Preservation 

 Act was passed in 1892 in order to protect the hare from 

 extermination. Meanwhile, and after these repressive and 

 protective measures, winged game was multiplied ; and it so 

 prejudiced the agricultural interest that, in 1906, the legisla- 

 ture made provision in the Agriculture Holdings Act for com- 

 pensation to tenants in respect of damage to crops by winged 

 game, particularly hand-reared pheasants. 



The Wild Birds' Protection Acts and the Game Laws re- 

 ferred to, together with the enforced attendance of children 

 at school till the age of fourteen, have had their effect on the 

 increase of small birds, particularly the beneficial ; the neutral, 

 or frugiverous and grain-eating, multiplying inordinately, and 

 the hurtful, or rapacious, decreasing to the advantage of sport- 

 ing and fishing, while prejudicing the foresting, farming (except- 

 ing poultry and pigeons) and gardening interests. 



On these matters of vital importance to the success of the 

 several cultures and the profit in full measure to the nation, 

 my observations and experiences of the wild and semi-wild 

 land vertebrates as aids and hindrances in those respects have 

 particular reference. And these observations and experiences 

 being in accord with the voluntarily expressed statements of 

 careful and experienced observers responsible for their several 

 respective charges, the deductions drawn from them may 

 be relied upon as consistent with the several interests involved, 

 in all of which success depends, other conditions being favour- 

 able, upon conservation of the Aids and limitation of the 

 Hindrances so far as compatible with the national welfare. 



The aids imply several protective means, and the hindrances 

 various repressive measures, being adopted as befits the sub- 

 jects of culture. In this connexion careful note has been made 

 of the means and measures seen in practice, or vouched for* 



