192 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



and " bad birds," understanding very well that moral 

 distinctions between the man who coveted a monopoly 

 in killing for self-indulgence and the bird killed by 

 man because it obeyed the law of its nature in killing 

 the same prey for food had better be left alone. 



All around us were the pampered pheasant chicks, 

 In special coops, in a special field, fed on special grain 

 food, with special hens to brood them and special men 

 to guard them day and night — here was the whole 

 expensive paraphernalia of elaborate waste to gratify 

 an atavistic pleasure. Simply in order to enable a 

 few rich men, "butchers by battue," to plume them- 

 selves in killing off so many tame birds in so many 

 hours, the whole wise balance of nature has been tipped 

 to the beam. I asked him whether he agreed that 

 the persecution of their natural enemies had been re- 

 sponsible for the increase of the wood-pigeons and 

 sparrows there has been such an ado to keep down of 

 late years. 



" Yes," quotha, " but " 



" Spare me that," said I ; "or do you really believe 

 that game-preservers (what a queer way we have of 

 preserving in order to kill and killing in order to pre- 

 serve !) kill off the crows and hawks and owls for love 

 of warblers and finches ? " ^ 



But we parted on the best of terms, and as a mark 

 of his esteem I was presented with a tract, which I 

 received with as much blushing gratitude as though 

 I had been handed a silver cup at a ceremonial dinner. 



So I packed off into the dusk, thinking of what I 

 had seen and of our warfare on birds for economic 

 reasons, on those very birds our magnanimous game- 

 preserving system protects from the cruel hawks, think- 

 ing, too, of nature's own kind wisdom, who loves all 

 her creatures impartially, who desires all of them to 

 live in the sweet sunlight to their fullest intensity, 

 but will not sentimentally pamper one to the exclu- 

 sion of another. But on one side of me the hedge 

 was starred with white campion, on the other the field 



^ I recognize, of course, that the preservation of rare, small 

 and delicate birds owes a great deal to enclosed estates. 



