BIRDS OF PREY. 17 



mouse, the cockchafer, and the wireworm, may be 

 specially instanced as seriously affecting by their ravages 

 both the corn crops and young plantations ; but remove 

 the checks which keep them within the bounds designed 

 by their all -wise Creator, and they rapidly increase, the 

 damages they commit being multiplied immensely, and 

 possess a money value which few who have not examined 

 into the matter, would calculate upon. Instead, there- 

 fore, of a supposed gain being derived from a practice, 

 which I fear is too prevalent, an actual loss is the 

 general, and I believe inevitable, result. 



This subject was incidentally alluded toby Sir William 

 Jardine at the meeting of the British Association in 

 1856, in connexion with the artificial propagation of 

 salmon in the Tay, a subject on which he was specially 

 deputed by his section to report. In the course of his 

 remarks, he stated that it had been found that one of 

 the worst enemies of the salmon ova in the breeding 

 beds was the larva of the Mayfly, which, in its turn, was 

 a favourite food of the trout. Now the practice in rivers 

 preserved for salmon-fishing was to destroy trout, while 

 this fact clearly showed that such ought not to be the 

 case, as, by keeping down the Mayfly, they aided in 

 propagating the salmon. As an illustration of this 

 immutable law of nature, Sir William pointed out that 

 in parts of the country where hawks hadjbeen^ ruthlessly 

 extujDated, with the object of encouraging the breed of 

 game, wood pigeons had increased to such an extent as 

 to have become a positive nuisance, and most injurious 

 to the farmer ; and he showed the danger incurred by 

 unduly interfering with the balance established by 

 nature amongst wild animals. But I shall recur to this 

 point again. 



C 



