234 SUMMER 



stand talking and laughing within a foot or two, and the 

 nest is little hidden. But if you would see this finch in real 

 multitude you should watch seed-crops in East Anglia when 

 the ripening hour is near. One has seen them on mangold 

 seed as thick as starlings in winter, and those who shoot to 

 protect their seed find that the slaughter of several hundred, 

 even on a half-acre plot, makes no apparent difference to the 

 army. They seem to have a peculiar affection for mangold 



A GREENFINCH'S NEST 



seed, as captive bullfinches for hemp or sparrows for wheat. 

 There are growers of seed xvho would like to see the green- 

 finch exterminated if that were possible, as there are apple- 

 growers who have the worst opinion of the bullfinch. But 

 let these destroyers once see the greenfinches at work earlier 

 in the year on an oak-tree devoured by green caterpillars, 

 and they must grant that the one form of greed cancels the 

 other. The seed, which is the later form of food, is the 

 reward for the earlier work of scavenging. 



We are blessed in England with an immense multitude of 

 birds which probably increased by thirty or forty per cent. 



