192 GAME PRESERVERS AND BIRD PRESERVERS. 



servation, or is vitiated by the fact that, when 

 they are killed down, other birds are also exter- 

 minated.' No doubt this is often true ; and we 

 would take care to protect plenty of other 

 birds, which are more strictly insectivorous, be- 

 fore destroying them. Capital punishment 

 should be inflicted by man alone. He destroys 

 so much more mercifully than when creatures 

 destroy each other. 



They soon get used to the report of a gun^ 

 and they will even sit in a tree and continue to 

 feed while some of their number are being shot. 

 But the sight of a hawk fills them with terror 

 from which they do not recover for a long 

 time. 



Although the sparrow has followed the 

 Eussians in their advance into Siberia, he has 

 not yet established himself in the west of 

 Argyllshire. His place round our farms is sup- 

 plied by a little cloud of chaffinches. 



