BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 297 



said it resulted from the action of the sparrows 

 in ousting them from their nests and nesting- 

 sites. But we know the true cause of the decline 

 of these two species, the best loved and best pro- 

 tected of all birds in Britain, not even excepting 

 robin redbreast. The French Government, in re- 

 sponse to representations on this matter from our 

 Foreign Office, have caused enquiries to be made 

 and have found that our swallows are being de- 

 stroyed wholesale in France during the autumn 

 migration, and have promised to put a stop to 

 this deplorable business. They do not appear to 

 have done so, since the promise was made three 

 years ago, and I can say from my own observa- 

 tion in the south and west countries that the de- 

 cline has continued and that we have never had 

 so few swallows come to us as in the present 

 summer of 1916. 



The daw to return to that subject has al- 

 ways been regarded as an injurious species, and 

 down to a quarter of a century ago every farm 

 lad in possession of a gun shot it in the interests 

 of the henwife, even as he had formerly shot 

 the kite, a common British species and a familiar 

 feature in the landscape down to the early years 



