256 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



breeding in the villages — ^about twenty-five in 

 number — ^in which I looked for them ; in the summer 

 of 191 5 I found them breeding in every town and 

 village I visited. At present, June, 1916, there are six 

 pairs in the village I am staying at. It may be the 

 case, and from conversations I have had with farmers 

 about the bird I am inclined to believe 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 j but such a feeling has not 

 become general as yet, and consequently has had 

 nothing to do with the extraordinary 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 exhilarated by the strains and kept 

 on making exclamations of rapturous delight, " Just 



