Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/261

who are framing laws for protection has been how far the taking of eggs of the lapwing should be prohibited; the usual conclusion is that the lapwing is wholly insectivorous, using this word in that wider sense which means invertebrate-ivorous, and that therefore it should receive the fullest protection. But two other interests are taken into consideration—the one commercial, for the eggs are in demand in the market, the other a matter of policy, the attitude towards the farmer and his hands; it is unwise to add restrictions which it is difficult to enforce. Therefore, in most cases eggs may be taken up to a certain date, but after that they are protected. But supposing that full protection is granted to the bird, and it increases, are we sure that increase is desirable? The lapwing may, when in its normal numbers, confine its attention to certain food, say the larvæ of root-eating moths, larvæ of phytophagous diptera and coleoptera, such as crane-flies and wireworms, or to the small molluscs which certainly do damage. But does the bird confine its attention to these? Does it sagely examine and leave unmolested the larva of a carnivorous beetle? Can it, or indeed any bird which follows the ploughman, between the grub of a cockchafer and that of the fertilising dung beetle? And, it it could, have we any reason to suppose that it would leave the so-called useful insect for our benefit? And in particular, does it or does it not eat earthworms, and it it does, is it doing us good or harm? Darwin, the great earthworm's advocate, showed the utility of this despised creature, but may we not have too many earthworms? It is an unsettled problem. Leave the worm problem to the mole, some say; but do we? We destroy the mole, yet not, if we are honest, because it devours the worm, but because it throws up unsightly and awkward mounds, obstacles to tillage, or, in many instances, because it has a pelt which has commercial