4,000 TONS OF BIRDS Sta,—Mr. Bates's letter in your issue
of February 7th prompts me to enlarge upon the subject of eating small birds from the purely statistical point of view. The breeding land-bird population of Great Britain is, every May, probably in the neighbourhood of 120 million— a figure which has been arrived at independently by two ornitholo- gists. More than half of this is made up by only 29 species, mainly small birds—the largest being rook, wood-pigeon, jackdaw, moorhen, lapwing and partridge. Even if these larger birds be included, the total weight of all the individuals of these 29 species only just reaches over 4,000 tons. Probably half of a bird, by weight, can be used, since wing-muscles and legs are alone usually eaten in this country. So if all these birds were distributed evenly over the human popula- tion of Great Britain, everybody would get xi (or perhaps a scrap more) ounces each, provided that all of them could be caught.
It •will be noted that partridges are included—a pointer to the tiny place that game takes in our national larder ; and to the fact that (for instance) sport is the only excuse for shooting the partridge, and the protection of crops the only excuse for shooting the wood-pigeon. I am not suggesting that these excuses are not satisfactory ones— personally I think that they are admirable ; but let us have none of this nonsense about contribution to the national food.—Yours, &c.,
School House, Oundle, Peterborough. JAMES FISHER.
Previous page
