18 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
the subject. A report upon injurious or beneficial 
creatures of any kind which is principally based 
upon the evidence of agriculturists themselves is not 
worth the paper upon which it is written. So wide 
an allowance must be made for the influence of the 
various prejudices which are handed down from one 
generation to another, and for the ignorance which 
prevails even when prejudice is wanting, that little or 
nothing remains which can possibly prove of service, 
either to the farmer, by distinguishing his friends 
from his foes, or to the large group of misunderstood 
creatures by revealing to their human persecutors 
the true character of their influence in the world. 
There are men in the ranks of the agriculturists, 
no doubt, who are justly regarded as exceptions to 
the ordinary rule, and who not only observe and 
reason for themselves, but distrust the verdict of 
others if it should prove irreconcilable with their 
own observations. But such men are still very few, 
and many even of those farming upon the largest 
scale are as ignorant of the commonest facts of 
nature as if from their earliest childhood they had 
never passed without the precincts of a town. 
Only a few days before writing these lines I re- 
ceived a striking confirmation of this statement from 
a correspondent, who writes as follows :— 
‘“‘T was walking one day with the well-known agri 
culturist, Mr. , and he mistook a fly-catcher 
(sitting on a fence within a dozen yards of us) fora 
sparrow, and would have had it killed as one !” 
And there are very few farmers indeed who possess 
