92 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



The eggs of plovers in some parts are now receiving 



protection all the year round, the Board of Agriculture 



having given notice that peewits feed 



The Law wholly to the benefit of field crops and do 



and the 



Peewit no ln J ur y whatever to the interests of 



farmers. The greedy and the thoughtless 

 have taken plovers' eggs in unreasonable numbers, 

 and total protection is to be welcomed. It may 

 be argued that peewits' eggs are a rare delicacy, 

 and wholesome food ; that where they may be 

 taken a limited number of old men may earn a few 

 shillings ; that a law superior to find-and-take would 

 be difficult to enforce ; also that taking the eggs 

 until about the middle of April does not materially 

 affect the numbers of peewits. What with the effects 

 of frosts and the destruction of eggs during the tillage 

 of fields, such as harrowing the fallows and rolling 

 the grass and cornfields, where peewits mostly 

 nest, the greater portion of the first layings cannot in 

 any case survive. But those allowed to take eggs 

 for the sake of profit will not stop at early ones, and 

 peewits are such useful birds that thorough pro- 

 tection for all the eggs would be the best policy. 



The partridge and the peewit seem to lead almost 

 blameless lives. We could claim that the pro- 

 ductive value of land is improved by the 

 presence of partridges and peewits. There 

 is no end to the good work of partridges. 



