148 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
order to point out, firstly, that its services in destroy- 
ing wild seeds in some degree compensate for its 
ravages among our fruit-trees ; and, secondly, that in 
a state of nature it is very likely beneficial owing to 
the very habit which renders it so noxious in cul- 
tivated districts. JI do not assert that the bullfinch is 
the friend of man. But I do say that the bird is 
not wholly his enemy, and that, but for the fact of 
his civilisation, it would not injure him in any way 
at all. 
