1909
Sept. 14 [September 14, 1909]
(No 4)
yet while he makes less use of them than he might
he allows no one else to obstruct them. He tries to
keep down the Rooks & Starlings for whenever they become
excessively abundant they do very great harm by eating
eggs & young birds. Sometimes he keeps an entire breeding
colony of Rooks away from their eggs during the whole
of a frosty night by posting men with guns inside the
rookery to shoot into the tree tops at frequent intervals
from sunset to sunrise. The result is that all the
eggs become addled & no young are reared that year.
A common practise of course, is to shoot most of
the young Rooks just as they are about to leave the
nests and to utilise them in rook pies which, I am
assured are excellent.
  There is literally no free shooting in England except
along the rivers and sea sands and on the ocean and
in the bogs & creeks that connect with it. Elsewhere
one may not fire a gun at bird or beast of any
kind save on his own land, or land of which he
has leased the shooting privileges from the owner, or
on land which he enters by the owner's invitation
as a friend or guest. A farmer who lists land
for agricultural purposes & for periods exceeding one year
each has now the right to take ground game ie
Hares & Rabbits. Whether or not he can take them
by means of a gun I have not yet ascertained.
He cannot take birds of any kind by virtue
of such form of lease. Some large landlord
proprietors refuse leases to all farmers who will
not promise to let the Hares alone. The Hares
have diminished greatly in numbers throughout most of England.