152 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



reached home, so for me this was not so much a red- 

 letter as a pied day. It began with the black upper- 

 most, for I found a shot crow lying in the fallows. 

 There I buried him and placed a tombstone of clods 

 at his head. Now that he has flown our many-coloured 

 glass-house, perhaps he has reached " a place more 

 rare," where God has granted his creatures a stronger 

 sense of humour. It is interesting to note how kindred 

 are the characters of magpie and pied wagtail. 



November 17th. The bullfinches have taken to the 

 hedges, and to-day I had a sight of six of them. Nor 

 was it a fugitive glimpse, as one expects with rare and 

 persecuted birds. For these birds kept about twenty 

 yards ahead of me for over a mile, flying in and out 

 of the hedge and frequently allowing an approach of 

 twelve feet. At one time I was so close to a female 

 that I had only to stretch out my hand, had I desired 

 to capture her. It is not surprising the bullfinch is 

 rare ; it is more so that he has not been extirpated. 

 It has always been a pleasure to me that old Bewick 

 defended the bullfinch's "disbudding" utility. "It is 

 usefully busy," he also says, " in destroying the worms 

 that are lodged in the tender buds." But gardeners 

 live by bread alone, and so get nothing but half a loaf. 

 Not that I care whether or no the bullfinch lives up 

 to his reputation. But I know that self-interest does 

 not look before and after, and that there is nothing in 

 this world that brings so practical a well-being as 

 reverence for beauty and respect for life. Even were 

 it not so, and the universe a lie in consequence, are 

 there many who would not give a few apples to see 

 the bullfinch's rosy apple breast, blushing through the 

 leaves and not a core but a warm heart beating 

 beneath it ? For the bullfinch is part of the true glory 

 of England, and in time will be exterminated by 

 gardeners, bird-catchers, and the female savages who 

 wear " wreaths " of them in their hats. 



In my most careless days, the endangering of the 

 life of a highly developed species, even if only out of 

 this loved land of ours, seemed to me a sorry thing. 

 Now in later years, when I have made some study of 



