Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/236

178 protection has surrounded the rook and claw; they need no further help. The raven, ruthlessly driven from our inland shires, survives upon the coasts and in the wilder hills; there the shepherd rather than the keeper deals with it. Though undoubtedly destructive, its numbers are so far reduced that it deserves protection. The hooded or grey crow and the carrion are hated alike by everyone who has a hen run or a game preserve; but the natural cunning of their tribe has saved them, and in many places they abound. Neither keeper nor farmer has had much to do with the diminution in the numbers of the chough; the increase of the jackdaw is a more important factor; nevertheless the egg-collector is in his greed hastening the inevitable end.

Strict preservation of game serves one most useful purpose in the eyes of all who wish to see our rarer birds protected; it is a check on the depredations of that worst enemy of our disappearing avifauna, the unscrupulous collector. There are keepers, unfortunately, who add to their income by shooting birds and taking eggs to supply the market; but there are estates so well guarded by honest men that the collector and his agents cannot enter or trade. There are land-owners whose estates are bird preserves, not game preserves alone, and who are more than anyone responsible for the survival of the remnant of many a species. Where would the eagle, osprey, kite, harriers, bittern, and great skua be to-day were it not for benignant protection? We are too prone to blame game preservation and the sportsman for the destruction of rare birds; sometimes the men who blame most are the most guilty. Many collectors rave about the scarcity of certain birds, and yet pay high prices for British-taken birds and eggs, encouraging the dealer to seek out the last refuges of the unfortunates. And it is no excuse to say that they only have in their cabinets eggs they have taken