16 JANUARY 1932, Page 15

There is some reason to fear that the snaring of

wild birds is increasing rather than, as one had hoped, diminishing. I know of one particular soarer whose activities are a serious subtraction from the happiness of his neighbours. He is to he seen at any time in one of the loveliest corners of Oxfordshire catching bull-finches and gold-finches for sale as cage birds. Advertisements commonly appear in the Provincial press (as quoted in Bird Notes and News) for plovers, larks, thrushes, blackbirds, &c., for the " game " market. Now the killing of plover—at any time—is forbidden, as it should be, in many by-laws ; and the killing of larks has no excuse at all From the purely natural history point there appears to be some confusion about the species of larks. Both the skylark and the woodlark sing divinely. Those who kill larks are apt to include pipits and even the corn bunting. The tree pipit has one of the most charming cascades of song—suiting action to word—of any bird in our list ; and we cannot deny a certain charm to the husky notes of that stout and evasive bunting. All of these birds are useful, if not quite up to the level of the green plover, the very best of the farmer's friends.