SHEPHERDS AND WHEATEARS 141 



will not soon be ended — there are too many Britons 

 with the Italian's debased passion for a song-bud's 

 flesh. But the feeling of intense disgust and even 

 abhorrence the practice arouses in all lovers of nature 

 grows, and will continue to grow; and we may look 

 forward to the time when the feeders on skylarks of 

 to-day will be dead and themselves eaten by worms, 

 and will have no successors in all these islands. 



