1909
Sept. 14 [September 14, 1909]
(No 2)
  From what I have seen in Great Britain this year,
especially during the trip just made into Scotland, I think 
it safe to say that throughout England and the more southern
parts of Scotland the numbers of small birds present during
summer within any given area not directly on the seacoast
must be at least twice and perhaps thrice as great as it ever
is at the same season, in areas of corresponding size and
character, in New England. Many birds of the size of
Starlings and larger are certainly at least one-hundred fold more numerous.
Of Rooks there must be fully five hundred to every Crow
we have in Massachusetts in summer and of Starlings fully
two hundred to every Blackbird & Meadow Lark we have.
The relatively greater abundance (in great Britain as compared
with New England) of birds prized for food and sport
and regularly shot by sportsmen is probably quite as marked
in the case of Pheasants and Partridges as compared with our Ruffed Grouse & Quail and perhaps
still more in the case of Lapwings, or compared with
that of any one species of our Limicolae. These are
the facts as I understand them. How can they be explained?
After having given the matter careful thought, based
on my personal observations of conditions here and on
evidence & opinion obtained from Harvie-Brown
during the long talks I have had with him the past few days, I
am now convinced that the wide-spread and indeed
nearly universal abundance of bird life of various kinds in Great Britain
and especially that of large, edible & more or less conspicuous 
birds shot for food as well as sport, is due chiefly
(1) to careful, intelligent, ceaseless protection against
excessive persecution on the part of gunners; (2) to
equally systematic if not invariably wholly wise protection
against natural enemies known here as "vermin"; (3) to