INCREASING BIRDS IN BRITAIN 253 



breast. The French Government, in response to 

 representations on this matter from our Foreign 

 Office, have caused enquiries to be made and have 

 found that our swallows are being destroyed whole- 

 sale in France during the autumn migration, and 

 have promised to put a stop to this deplorable 

 business. They do not appear to have done so, since 

 the promise was made three years ago, and I can say 

 from my own observation in the south and west 

 countries that the dechne has continued and that 

 we have never had so few swallows come to us as 

 in the present summer of 1916. 



The daw — ^to return to that subject — ^has always 

 been regarded as an injurious species, and down 

 to a quarter of a century ago every farm lad in 

 possession of a gun shot it in the interests of the 

 henwife, even as he had formerly shot the kite, a 

 common British species and a familiar feature in 

 the landscape down to the early years of last century. 

 Doubtless it was a great thing to bring down this 

 great bird " that soars sublime " and nail it to the 

 barn-door. By the middle of the last century it had 

 become a rarity, and the ensuing rush for specimens 

 and eggs for private collectors quickly brought about 

 its virtual extinction. The kite is but one of several 

 species — six of them hawks — extirpated within the 

 last forty years. Why, then, does the daw, more 

 injurious to the game-preserver and henwife than 



