PROTECTION FOR AESTHETIC REASONS 231 



So successful has been the legal protection of wild birds 

 that several species have increased beyond reasonable limits, 

 and have come to be recognized as pests. Amongst these 

 beneficiaries under the Acts and their supplementary 

 Orders are the Gulls, especially Blackheaded Gulls, which 

 have turned their attention to grain, turnips and potatoes; 



Fig. 47. Scottish Crested Tit increasing in numbers under protection. 

 (From a Speyside example.) About natural size. 



the Merganser, Goosander and Heron, whose numbers are 

 said seriously to deplete freshwater fisheries; the Starling, 

 Thrush, Blackbird and Bullfinch, which have become the 

 bane of the fruitgrower; and those doughty thieves, the Rook 

 and the Wood-pigeon. In the interests of the home grown 

 food supply of the country, the importance of which the War 

 has emphasized, such birds, in districts where satisfactory 



