122 A Midland Village: Garden and Meadow. 



What can be the cause of this surprising increase 

 of population ? If it is anything that has hap- 

 pened in this country, such as the passing of the 

 Wild Birds' Protection Act, we must suppose that 

 the same individuals which breed and are born 

 here in one spring, return here the next year ; 

 i. e. our supply of this summer migrant depends 

 on the treatment it receives here, and not upon 

 the number of Redstarts available in the world 

 generally. I am inclined indeed to think, though 

 it is difficult to prove it, that the wholesale 

 slaughter of young birds in our neighbourhood is 

 less horrible than it used to be before the passing 

 of the Act ; but when we remember that other 

 creatures, certain butterflies, for example, whose 

 relations to man never greatly differ from year to 

 year, are found to be much more abundant in 

 some years than others, the more rational conclu- 

 sion seems to be, that an increase or decrease of 

 numbers depends, in the case of migrating birds, 

 on certain causes which are beyond the reach of 

 mankind to regulate. What these may be it is 

 possible only to guess. A famine in the winter 

 quarters would rapidly decimate the numbers of 



