Utility and Economy of Birds 



I saw in a vision 

 The worm in the wheat, 

 And in the shops nothing 

 For the people to eat : 

 Nothing for sale in 

 Stupidity Street. 



(Royal Society for the Protection of Birds : 

 Annual Report, 1918.) A question, asked in 

 the House of Commons, elicited the reply 

 from the Home Secretary that the Metropoli- 

 tan Police found no reason to think that, 

 except in rare cases, SONG-BIRDS were being 

 sold for food in contravention of the law ; 

 suitable action had been taken, and he 

 sincerely trusted that the barbarous practice 

 of killing SONG-BIRDS for food would not take 

 root in this country (Hansard, H. of C. vol. 

 81, No. 32, Wed. ig.iv.i6). 



In June 1916 there was published in a 

 daily newspaper the portrait of "the first 

 woman gamekeeper " (Daily Mail, i.vi.i6); 

 but as the War went on women took over 

 more and more men's work, and even "lady 

 rabbit catchers " became quite fashionable! 

 The absence of men led to much less shooting 

 both of birds and of beasts, and not a few deer 



