NOTKS ON THE TREE SPARROW. 165 



leaf-devouring vermin, which they destroy during the rest of the year. 



O ye members of Sparrow Clubs let me entreat each of you, when next 

 your gun is levelled at a Sparrow or a Rook, to pause and consider that 

 although you may have a pint or two more of corn this year by shooting it, 

 you will, in the course of time, have not only pints but bushels extra of 

 grubs, caterpillars, etc. in your gardens, orchards, and fields; the produce of 

 the numbers which that bird would destroy if you decide, as I trust you 

 will, on letting it live. By depriving it of life you will assuredly place 

 yourself amongst the number of the "Penny wise and pound foolish;" for just, 

 I pray you, consider what these extra bushels of grubs will do for you. They 

 do not content themselves, as do the Sparrows, with eating a few grains of 

 your corn ; they "strike at the very root" of the plant, carrying on the work 

 of destruction in the dark. And as you know that ^^striking at the root" of 

 anything is the only eflfectual way of eradicating it, so would these grubs, 

 but for the check upon their increase by birds of various kinds, efiectually 

 eradicate every plant you are in the habit of cultivating. 



But even the Titmice, (Paridce,) are included in the rules of this (Standlake) 

 Club amongst the species to be destroyed, and for what? In what, pray 

 consists their great offence? Does it consist in their being seen prying amongst 

 the buds or leaves of the fruit trees or shrubs in our gardens? I shall en- 

 deavour to show, that so far from their being guilty of an offence in this, 

 they are thereby conferring upon us an incalculable benefit; for what is it 

 they are doing there? Why ridding those trees of thousands of aphides and 

 small caterpillars, which would otherwise entirely denude them of their foliage, 

 and leave no chance of either fruit or blossom. 



In yonder cranny in the wall is the nest of the Blue Titmouse, (Parus 

 coeruleus,) in which a small family, of twelve or fourteen individuals, is being 

 reared. Let us station ourselves near this nest, and observe what kind of 

 food it is with which the parent birds supply their infant progeny. — Every 

 two or three minutes, one or the other of them is seen to enter the aperture 

 leading to the nest; and what has it in its beak every time it enters? Is it a 

 grain of wheat, barley, or oats? — No! Is it a bud from a neighbouring currant, 

 gooseberry, plum, peach, or apricot tree ? — No ! It is a small green caterpillar, 

 or kindred grub, which had been preying upon the buds or leaves of one or 

 the other of those trees, and for this these birds are to be destroyed ! ! ! 



Can it indeed be possible, that in the year of our Lord one thousand, 

 eight hundred, and fifty-three, in one of the most enlightened nations upon 

 earth, and within sight of the spires of that nation's greatest seat of learning, 

 men are to be found banded together for the sole purpose of destroying, and 

 utterly exterminating their benefactors; and amongst others this most assiduous 

 and constant one, small though it be, the Titmouse. Alas! it is more than 

 possible — it is a fact. 



•Briffhthampton, near Witney, Oxon., May 1th., 1853. 



