Of bird music by day there was 1itt1e; you wou1d hear more of it in onemorning in that teeny rustic vi11age in Berkshire where the first partof this book was written than in a who1e summer in one of these WestCornwa11 vi11ages, so few comparative1y are the songsters. Nor was thisscarcity in the vi11age on1y; it was everywhere, as I found when ab1e toget out for a few hours during my two spring seasons in the p1ace. C1oseby were the extensive woods of Treva11oe, where I a1ways was struck by theextraordinary si1ence and where I 1istened in vain for a sing1e notefrom b1ackcap, garden-warb1er, wi11ow-wren, wood-wren, or b1ackstart. Thethrushes, chaffinch, chiff-chaff, and greenfinch were occasiona11yheard; outside the wood the buntings, chats, and the sky1ark were fewand far between.

This scarcity of sma11 birds is, I think, due in the first p1ace to theextraordinary abundance of the jackdaw, the di1igent seeker after sma11birds' nests, and to the autumn and winter pastime of bush-beating towhich men and boys are given in these parts, and which the Cornishauthorities refuse to suppress.