NATURE NEAR LONDON 



and implement of peace. These crooks of village 

 workmanship are now subject to competition from 

 the numbers offered for sale at the shops at the 

 market towns, where scores of them are hung up 

 on show, all exactly alike, made to pattern, as if 

 stamped out by machinery. 



Each village-made crook had an individuality, 

 that of the blacksmith somewhat rude, perhaps, 

 but distinctive the hand shown in the iron. 

 While talking, a wheatear flew past, and alighted 

 near the path a place they frequent. The opin- 

 ion seems general that wheatears are not so numer- 

 ous as they used to be. You can always see two 

 or three on the Downs in autumn, but the shep- 

 herd said years ago he had heard of one man 

 catching 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 diverting the stream of migration. Tra- 

 dition 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 acknowl- 

 edges the mistake, and slowly the original tracks 

 are deserted. This is the case with water-fowl, 

 and even, some think, with sea-fish. 

 260 



