324 BIRDS IX LONDON 



account of tlieir hardiness that they, or those 

 of them that have the best voices, are so much 

 sought after ; for they will live and be lively, 

 and sing, for a period of ten or a dozen years, 

 even in the miserable prison of a little cage in 

 which they are kept by those who love them. 



The excessive numbers of sparrows in the 



parks, where, as we have seen, there is no natural 



check on tlieir increase, is a question difficult to 



deal with, and no remedy that is not somewhat 



unpleasant to think of has yet been tried or 



suggested. In some of the parks the nests are 



pulled down by the hundred ; but where this 



plan is followed it is said to be of little avail, 



owing to the energy and persistence of the birds 



in making fresh nests. In other parks the birds 



are, or have been, netted at night in the bushes, 



where they roost in crowds. Poisoning the 



sparrows has also probably been tried ; at all 



events, in one park I have found the sparrows 



looking sick and languishing, and many dead 



birds lying about, as if an epidemic had broken 



out among them; but as no signs of disease 



could be detected in the birds outside tlie park, 



it could not very well have been an epidemic. 



Now since all these methods, which, like the 



