254 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



any one of these lost hawks, continue to flourish 

 and increase in numbers 5" It is, I imagine, because 

 of the growth of a sentiment which favours its 

 preservation. But it is not the same as that which 

 has served to preserve the rook and made it so 

 common. That is a sentiment confined to the land- 

 owning class — ^to those who inherit great houses 

 where the ancient rookery with its crowd of big, 

 black, contentious birds caw-cawing on the windy 

 elmSj has come to be an essential part of the estab- 

 lishment, like the gardens and park and stables and 

 home-farm and, one might add, the church and 

 village. This sentiment differs, too, from the heron- 

 sentiment, which serves to keep that bird with us in 

 spite of the annual wail, rising occasionally in South 

 Devon to a howl, of human trout-fishers. It is a 

 traditional feeling coming down from the far past 

 in England — ^from the time of William the Con- 

 queror to that of Wilham of Orange and the decay 

 of falconry. 



That a species without any sentiment to favour 

 it and without special protection by law may increase 

 is to be seen in the case of the starling. This increase 

 has come about automatically after we had destroyed 

 the starling's natural enemies and then ceased to 

 persecute it ourselves. Of all birds it was the most 

 preyed on by certain raptorial species, especially by 

 the sparrowhawk, which is now becoming so rare. 



