THE LAPWING OR PEEWIT 155 



woodpecker may yet be found in large woods, parks, and pleasure 

 grounds, but very deplorably in decreasing number, which may to 

 some extent be due to the greater care bestowed on timber trees by 

 removing unhealthy or decayed examples. Nevertheless, there 

 are some Ian downers that still delight in old trees, and even here the 

 woodpeckers are becoming rarer year by year. Surely this is a 

 consequence of the rage for stuffed specimens and for the part their 

 plumage displays in bird millinery. To the forester and orchardist 

 no more useful birds exist, as they destroy innumerable pests that 

 may obtain a footing in dead limbs, and from whence would other- 

 wise infect the trunks in certain conditions of season. The green 

 woodpecker is far more commonly seen than the other species, but 

 this is chiefly in woods, woodlands, and pleasure grounds, a clear 

 indication of the preservative influence of the proprietor of the 

 domain and the due regard of his commands by servitors. So 

 tempting are woodpeckers to bird-stuffers, well knowing the value 

 of specimens for museums, cases in halls, and ladies' hats, that liberal 

 prices are given for the shot -where -not -seen examples. Surely 

 legislation can devise some means of reaching the killer through 

 the receiver and penalize both, no matter for which purpose. 



LAPWING. The peewit is the most useful of all wild birds to 

 the marsh, meadow, arable, and moorland farmer. It eats not 

 any of his crops, but devours the enemies of his grass, legume, cereal, 

 and root crops. The benefit conferred cannot be estimated, but 

 it must be immense, and as almost all luxuries of the table in wild 

 fowl are derived from the farmer's land, is it too much to ask for 

 the protection of the eggs of the peewit as well as for the bird in 

 close time ? 



We plead for an enactment by Parliament that would prohibit 

 the killing, as well as taking the eggs, of all the birds before 

 referred to as " insectivorous and harmless," not only in close time, 

 but throughout the year, on the ground of their conducing to the 

 best interests of arboriculture, agriculture, and horticulture, which 

 appeal to the nation's declaration as most promotive of its 

 welfare. The angler may object to this as interfering with the 

 presence of "flies " for his sport inconsequence of their destruction 

 by insectivorous birds (migratory included), while the lapwing 

 shooters wax furious over the preclusion of killing the birds in 

 October when in the highest flavour as an article of food. But what 

 does the angler and the lapwing shooter, also its eggs-taker, give 

 to forestry, farming and gardening ? The flies (some of them) are 

 land reared, and lapwings spread over the country for breeding, 

 therefore the fen districts and seacoast sportsmen reap harvests 

 at the expense of the tillers of the soil. 



