iS93. ORNITHOLOGY. 285 



these are an Eastern race, distinct from our common bird, and have 

 purple heads and green ear-coverts, and they leave the country in the 

 spring. 



We are somewhat doubtful as to what Mr. Riley Fortune tells us 

 in chap, x., that the starling picks the " ticks " from the wool on the 

 backs of sheep. We rather think he uses the sheep's back as a con- 

 venient perch. At various times we have watched them through a 

 glass at a short distance, Avhen perched on the backs of thick-wooled 

 Lincoln sheep, but have never seen them actually picking off the 

 sheep fags. 



Much more might well be written on this most interesting topic, 

 the subject is practically an inexhaustible one. Out of the multitude 

 of our miscellaneous small birds, the greater part are absolutely 

 innocuous and are largely beneficial. In other cases, the injury done 

 at certain seasons is slight and amply counterbalanced by the 

 services they render during the rest of the year in destroying 

 insects and the seeds of weeds. 



In conclusion, to sum up the evidence both for and against, as 

 placed before us by the able ornithologists in Mr. Watson's book, it 

 is abundantly apparent that the case for the prosecution falls very far 

 short of the defence, and that the verdict must be an acquittal for the 

 birds, both as regarding individual species and in the aggregate, with 

 an admission that the benefit they confer upon man is far in excess of 

 the injury. There is one exception to this, and that is the ubiquitous 

 and all-devouring sparrow. 



" O wretched set of sparrows, one and all," — • 



Perhaps no greater mischief is done than by that large class of senti- 

 mental writers who are ever ready to exaggerate the good qualities of 

 their feathered favourites and to minimise the evil. It must, however, 

 be apparent to the dullest intellect that no wild bird is able to draw a 

 line between the natural production of the soil and those seeds and 

 fruit which are the results of man's industry. ' Neither can it be 

 expected that hawk or falcon can discriminate between the young of 

 a wild bird and a coop-reared pheasant or partridge. In so highly a 

 cultivated country as England, birds would often be put to great 

 straits if they had to depend on wild fruits or seeds alone, and, having 

 dispossessed them of their inheritance, we must be satisfied to give our 

 little workers some small share of our produce as a return for the im- 

 portant services rendered in keeping down weeds and insects, and 

 thus indirectly helping to increase the fertility and productiveness of 

 the soil. 



John Cordeaux. 



