Cackle Pie
The cut in the meat ration is a depressing though not desperate thing, and it is a sad day for all of us, and for bird-lovers especi- ally, when writers begin to advocate the shooting of gulls and small singing-birds as articles of food. I have before me a periodical in which a writer is at much pains to discuss the gastronomic baauty not only of sparrow-pie, but of chaffinches, bullfinches, fieldfares, red-wings, lapwings, woodpeckers, moor- hens and curlew. Of gulls—which have always been considered unlucky birds to shoot—the article declares " they will help to make a decent hotpot with sage and onions, and sausages if they can be bought." It recalls that " a Queen of England was specially fond of bull-finch pie "; it describes starlings, which are highly obnoxious creatures, as " quite palatable "; it refers to pickled puffins as having been once widely eaten in this country; and it finally excuses itself with the naive remark that " we should, however, beware of killing too many of our birds." The many bird-lovers who read this page will, I think, have their own answer to that. To me it only occurs that though there never seems to be too many birds, there are times when there seem to be just a few too many writers.
Previous page
