BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 301 



it is so, that a strong feeling in favour of the 

 starling (in the pastoral districts) is growing up 

 at the present time, a feeling which in the end 

 is more powerful to protect than any law ; but such 

 a feeling has not become general as yet, and con- 

 sequently has had nothing to do with the extraor- 

 dinary increase of the bird. 



The wood-pigeon is another species which, like 

 the starling, has increased greatly in recent years, 

 without special protection and with no sentiment 

 in its favour. . . . The sentiment is all confined 

 to the nature-lovers, whose words have no effect 

 on the people generally, least of all on the 

 farmers. I am reminded here of the experience 

 of a young man, an ardent bird-lover, on his visit 

 to a Yorkshire farm. His host, who was also a 

 young man, took him a walk across his fields. It 

 was a spring day of brilliant sunshine, and the 

 air was full of the music of scores of soaring sky- 

 larks. The visitor long in cities pent, was ex- 

 hilarated by the strains and kept on making ex- 

 clamations of rapturous delight, "Just listen to 

 the larks ! Did you ever hear anything like it !" 

 and so on. 



His host, his eyes cast down, trudged on in 



