THE PRESERVATION OF GAME 177 



species may result, through the drain upon food supplies, 

 never an unlimited commodity in nature, in the destruc- 

 tion of many other plants and animals upon which other 

 creatures depend. Nature htjs laws which are not to be 

 tampered with. 



The grouse moors, deer forests, trout streams are but 

 different settings for the same problem; a sanctuary is 

 supplied for many an innocent animal; their enemies 

 absent, they flourish abundantly. Some, however the 

 rat and house- sparrow, for example are anything but 

 innocent so far as man's welfare is concerned, and they, 

 too, benefit by food and asylum. Both in moderation 

 might be useful members of society; unchecked by natural 

 foes they are a menace. 



That the sparrowhawk can be included as a bird with 

 any virtue may astonish some preservers. Lord Lilford, 

 sportsman and naturalist, shall answer in his words to 

 Canon Tristram: " The sparrowhawk does good service 

 by taking hard-billed birds, as Passer impudicus (Mihi), 

 Damnabilis (Irby), Papisticus (Tristram), sanguineus 

 (agricolse), and other grain-devourers." Even the most 

 inveterate destroyer of game, so long as its numbers do 

 not increase inordinately, is useful in preventing the 

 multiplication of other possible nuisances. 



The science and cunning of the game preserver and his 

 agents have failed to subdue the adaptive Corvidce, though 

 some are in a parlous state. The magpie is rare in certain 

 areas, but it makes up by overabundance where the game- 

 keeper holds no sway; there the lesser fowl suffer from 

 its keen eye and wicked beak. The jay defies persecu- 

 tion; there may be many mouldering corpses on the 

 keeper's gibbet, but the survivors scream defiance from 

 the thickets, eluding gun, trap, and poison. The keeper 

 is not to blame in all cases for the scarcity of the raven, 

 carrion and hooded crow in many areas. Sentimental 



