THE GREEDY MOUSE.
The experiment proved that the great destroyers of seed are mice and birds. Protection against either increased the number of seedlings: Protection against both multiplied them against all expectation. So far so good ; but how many places are there in Scotland or any other parts of Britain where jays and crossbills are numerous enough to make any real difference to the natural nursery ? Mice are numerous enough nearly everywhere, and pigeons in some places, but the index expur- gatorius begins and ends with these two species. Doubtless jays may become over-numerous, I know one garden, for example, where every summer they eat a gOod twenty per cent. of the green peas ; but let us be honest in our condemna- tions, and not, as Charles Lamb used to say, " damn at sight." Some jays let us keep even in the most model forest. Inci- dentally, small green jays were almost the only bird I saw in Newfoundland woods in autumn. As for the crossbill, it seems likely, to judge from the very rapid increase of this charming and once rare bird, that the multiplication of trees which will permanently influence our fauna will preserve this species. Woodpeckers of the three sorts are already multiplying (though this may be due to bad forestry rather than good). The wild cat, once almost extinct, has returned to Scotland ; so has the golden eagle ; and it would probably benefit the general balance of nature if we could restore the polecat and perhaps the marten or pine-marten, which had sa attractive a scent, according to Jacobean sportsmen, that no hounds, whatever their proper quarry, could resist it.
*
Previous page
