194 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



the hand shown in the iron. While talking, a wheat- 

 ear flew past, and alighted near the path a place they 

 frequent. The opinion seems general that wheatears are 

 not so numerous as they used to be. You can always 

 see two or three on the Downs in autumn, but the 

 shepherd said years ago he had heard of one man catch- 

 ing seventy dozen in a day. 



Perhaps such wholesale catches were the cause of the 

 comparative deficiency at the present day, not only by 

 actual diminution of numbers, but in partially divert- 

 ing the stream of migration. Tradition is very strong in 

 birds (and all animated creatures) ; they return annually 

 in the face of terrible destruction, and the individuals do 

 not seem to comprehend the danger. But by degrees 

 the race at large becomes aware of and acknowledges 

 the mistake, and slowly the original tracks are deserted. 

 This is the case with water-fowl, and even, some think, 

 with sea-fish. 



There was not so much game on the part of the hills 

 he frequented as he had known when he was young, and 

 with the decrease of the game the foxes had become 

 less numerous. There was less cover as the furze was 

 ploughed up. It paid, of course, better to plough it up, 

 and as much as an additional two hundred acres on a 

 single farm had been brought under the plough in his 

 time. Partridges had much decreased, but there were 

 still plenty of hares : he had known the harriers some- 

 times kill two dozen a day. 



Plenty of rabbits still remained in places. The foxes' 

 earths were in their burrows or sometimes under a hollow 

 tree, and when the word was sent round the shepherds 

 stopped them for the hunt very early in the morning. 

 Foxes used to be almost thick. He had seen as many 

 as six (doubtless the vixen and cubs) sunning themselves 



