Birds in Autumn.



365



shooting', trapping, and even nest and egg destroying fail to make

any appreciable reduction in their flocks.


Game-keeping has made considerable difference to the inci¬

dence of birds, as it has done in the case of animals, just as in the

same way trout and salmon preserving has affected the other fish

and the riverside creatures. A visit to a gamekeeper’s “gallows”

will testify to this—a gruesome row of birds and beasts shot or

trapped and nailed to a post as common malefactors. Jays have

been much reduced this way. The jay is inordinately fond of eggs,

especially pheasant and partridge egg's. So the gamekeeper fixes up

a pole in or near the wood, places a small platform on top, and

secures there a steel trap. This is baited with an empty egg shell.

The jay swoops down and pecks hard at it, thus losing his life in the

trap. In some parts jays are getting comparatively scarce. The

magpie is a much persecuted bird, being' shot as it flies out from the

hedge or copse. But it is still fairly common, and may often be

seen taking its low undulating flight over the meadows. This bird

is remarkable for its long tail, and the use it makes of it while flying,

raising' and depressing it as a sort of plane, the result being a rising

and falling, switch-back sort of progression.


The large birds are the chief sufferers in modern England.

Some have been quite exterminated, though many would return and

the present species increase numerically were they but given some

encouragement and protection.


But most of the common small birds have multiplied greatly,

thereby occasioning much grumbling from those on whose ground

they feed, particularly fruit-farmers.


There is no bird for which the fruit-grower has a word of

praise : the most credit he will give to the best-intentioned bird is a

grunt of disdain or uncertainty. Considering the varieties of birds

which feed on insects and creeping things, most of which are a

menace to the cultivator, a strong case can be made out for the

birds, and a little bud and fruit-eating might be forgiven them.


This increase of the common birds is rather curious and its

causes not quite definitely assigned. They are mostly small birds,



This form of trap is illegal, and extreme!}' cruel.—E d.



