228 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



absolutely protected during this period, while the others 

 remain at the mercy of the occupier or owner of land. Many 

 also have been protected under subsequent Acts (especially 

 of 1894 and 1896) providing for the preservation of the eggs 

 of particular wild birds, for the adding of new birds to the 

 Schedule, for the extension of the close season in particular 

 cases, and for the creation of areas where all wild birds are 

 protected all the year round. 



The result of these enactments has been on the whole a 

 marked increase of insectivorous birds. Indeed so great has 

 been the increase in the case of certain species that they 

 have been forced by the competition of numbers to turn 

 more and more from their staple food of insects to the 

 grain of the farmer and fruit of the gardener. On this ac- 

 count many demands have been made that certain of the 

 species which have most multiplied under protection should 

 be removed from the guardianship of the law. Although these 

 demands must be carefully tested in the light of unbiassed 

 observation of feeding habits throughout the year, there 

 is a consensus of opinion, based upon field observations and 

 the examination of the food found in the crops of thousands 

 of individuals, that in certain areas the numbers of such 

 insect-eating birds as Rooks, Starlings, Gulls, especially 

 Black-headed, and Blackbirds, could be limited without 

 detriment to their useful labours, and to the great advantage 

 of agriculture generally. 



I conclude this reference to the "farmer's friends," with 

 an account of a curious type of special protection which used 

 to hold in Shetland. There the Great Skua (Stercorarius 

 skua] was preserved and encouraged because of its services 

 to the farmer in driving the Sea- Eagle from the island. Low 

 in his Tour through Orkney and Shetland, which took place 

 in the latter half of the eighteenth century, wrote 



In Foula there is a privileged bird, no man will nor dare shoot it, 

 under the penalty of i6s. 8d. Ster., nor destroy its eggs; when they meet 

 it at sea, whatever fish they have in the boat Skua always gets a share, and 

 all this out of gratitude for beating off the Eagle, who dares not venture to 

 prey on the island during the whole of the breeding season.... Skua is not 

 so strong as the Eagle, but much more nimble; strikes at him without 

 mercy, with such effect that he makes the other scream aloud, and his 

 retreat is so sudden as to avoid all danger from the Eagle. 



