NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



"blackbird, throstle, nightingale, linnet, lark, and 

 bullfinch." Of the chaffinch it is observed: ''There 

 is no scarcity of this bird, and, in my minde, fitter for 

 the spit than a cage, having but one short plain song," 

 Larks we still eat, as also, among village folk, black- 

 birds and thrushes. Happily we spare the magnificent 

 little bullfinch, one of the finest notes of colour among 

 English rural scenery. We spare also, happily enough, 

 the cheerful chaffinch, which (I speak of the male) is, 

 in his spring courting plumage, little less handsome 

 than the splendid bullfinch. 



As for the eating of larks, about which birds senti- 

 mental folk waste a great deal of unnecessary fervour, 

 it is well to remind the admirers of this sweet songster 

 — among whom I distinctly range myself — of a few 

 concrete facts. In spite of the numbers of these birds 

 displayed in poulterers' shops and eaten, there is, in 

 rural districts, no perceptible diminution whatever in 

 their legions, and their migrations from the Continent 

 are still almost overpoweringly abundant. The lark's 

 song is as widespread and as often heard throughout 

 the length and breadth of the country as ever it was. 



It should be remembered by those humanitarians who 

 cry out against the destruction of larks that these birds, 

 where they are numerous — and they are far too numer- 

 ous for the farmer in many places — do an infinity of 

 mischief to young crops, especially by biting off 

 autumn-sown wheat, just as it is coming up. Larks 

 are, most assuredly, not unmercifully destroyed : if they 

 were not occasionally netted, their increase would be 

 inordinate, and the land would most certainly suffer. 

 Let the sentimentalist take a walk upon the Sussex 

 downs, or any other open piece of countryside on a 

 fine day of spring, and he or she will beyond any 

 possibility of doubt be convinced that there are still 



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