202 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



invasion of the upland pastures by the larvae of the antler 

 moth. 



One remarkable, significant, and, in some quarters at 

 least, unexpected result is that the stock of wild 

 pheasants that is to say, of birds which nested and reared 

 their young without artificial aid is greater than before 

 the war. It has often been asserted that the pheasant, an 

 introduced bird, could not exist without protection; I 

 believe that it is so firmly established as a colonist that it 

 has reached that position when it is fitted to maintain its 

 own natural balance. The wild birds not only could exist, 

 but actually benefited by the absence of competition with 

 their hand- reared brethren; there was no longer over- 

 stocking. 



Game preservation, a very ancient source of inter- 

 ference, has altered the constituents of the fauna more 

 than most agencies, the cultivation of land and domestica- 

 tion of animals excepted; it has too often altered it for the 

 benefit of the minority. Yet we must face the fact that 

 the destruction of predatory creatures and the provision 

 of shelters for game woodlands, coverts, and moors 

 have proved advantageous to innumerable creatures, 

 mammals, birds, and insects, for example, which were 

 innocuous to game or beneath the notice of its guardians. 

 We have no vivid faunal picture of our land before the 

 days of forest and game laws, but we can imagine what 

 it was like from analogy. A friend of mine who served 

 as a doctor during the East African campaign was much 

 struck by the apparent absence of small birds and the 

 visible abundance of raptorial species. He argued that 

 there must be a wealth of bird life to feed all these carni- 

 vorous vultures, kites, eagles, hawks, and falcons, and soon 

 arrived at the correct solution of the problem; small 

 mammals and birds sheltered in the dense jungle, the 

 predatory birds " waited on," as the falconer would say. 



