346 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



very destructive to field and orchard produce and 

 valued as human food. 



It is curious how well some species of the smaller 

 birds hold their own in spite of ages of persecution ; 

 the Quail has been massacred wholesale since the 

 days of Moses, and probably long before that, and 

 yet would hold its own well if it were not for the 

 wasteful spring netting. The Blackbird and Thrush 

 were favourite game-birds in the Mediterranean 

 region in the classical ages, and are so still, and 

 yet they are a great deal too common for the peace 

 of mind of our fruit-growers ; while even the little 

 Blackcap Warbler is cited as a fruit- destroyer un- 

 deserving of protection, though it appears that 

 Cyprus has driven a brisk trade in bottled Black- 

 caps since the Middle Ages ! 



The fact is, man creates by his cultivations and 

 by the extermination of predatory wild life so 

 favourable an environment for the weaker land- 

 birds that he really gives back to bird- life in this 

 way what he takes away by destroying forests, 

 draining marshes, killing for food, and otherwise 

 interfering with the larger birds, especially the 

 aquatic and marsh-haunting species. Even these 

 are very abundant yet in India, where the cultiva- 

 tion of rice, an aquatic plant, favours them ; and 

 the abundance of the birds of prey, so rare in Europe, 

 strikes every one who goes out there. 



The common Indian Kite, indeed, a local race 

 of the Black Kite of Europe, is one of the species 

 that may fairly be classed as a parasite or com- 



