Who Killed Cock Robin? 279 



opinion: the eagle is regarded as a child stealer in spite of 

 the fact that a friend of mine, who has for fifteen years in- 

 vestigated such charges, has never been able to substantiate 

 a claim of child injury. The wren is considered a confiding 

 and altogether sweet bird, although it is often extremely 

 quarrelsome and domineering and has been known to pierce 

 the eggs of its neighbors with its bill when nesting competi- 

 tion is too severe. The hawks, even those which are of much 

 value in the elimination of rodents, are "vermin," the name 

 given to mammals difficult to control, and deserving of ex- 

 termination. The owl is a murderer while the squirrels, fre- 

 quent nest robbers, are highly regarded. The coyote, an 

 inveterate mouser, receives no credit. In the marsh the single 

 pair of kingfishers which sometimes appears is hated by 

 sportsmen, who would welcome their elimination. Wildlife 

 is classed everywhere in an entirely arbitrary and often un- 

 fair manner. 



It is not a new thing, this attitude toward wildlife. A 

 friend, a collector of old books, recently loaned me an Eng- 

 lish publication of 1841 written by a man named Hone and 

 called The Year Book. Among its many miscellaneous items 

 is one which says: 



Bullfinches return to our gardens in February. The mischief effected 

 by them is trifling. It was supposed that they deprived us of a larger 

 portion of the buds of our fruit trees. It is now an ascertained fact 

 that they only select such buds as contain the larva of an insect: thus 

 rendering us a kindness by destroying an embryo, or colony of injurious 

 creatures. 



We can imagine the history of this bird: first maligned and 

 persistently persecuted because it ate the buds which, if 

 unmolested, would have produced fine fruit; afterward 

 praised and protected because the buds it ate were worm- 

 infected and would have been of great harm to the tree. 

 Formerly maligned, it then became the pampered dweller 

 in the English hedgerows. 



