222 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



preferred by this family before anything else ; when there 

 is none, the next move is in favour of fruit ; and if this has 

 gone, insects, large and small, are well hunted. 



The Cuckoo-Shrikes and Silver-eyes are spoken of in very 

 bad English all along the line of growers during portions of 

 the summer months. Yet, if one presses intelligent growers 

 to admit a knowledge of their habits during ten months of 

 the year, you will find, as I have found, that when weighed 

 in the balance the scale in the birds' favour goes down at 

 once and heavily. No one person in this world gets all of 

 any one way — neither the bird, the grower, nor the grown ; 

 and it is a fact that while all parties appear to demand 

 individual rights, one from the soil and the others from the 

 garden, they are indispensable to each other in the working 

 out of them. Australia has no bird that proves so disastrous 

 to rural industries as the introduced sparrow. A law for 

 its stringent suppression should be a satisfactory one. 

 Everywhere, birds that keep in subjection untold millions of 

 creatures during the year naturally expect a change of diet 

 in three months of it. They have earned it, and get it if 

 they can. Growers are not bound to give it, but for their 

 own broad interests they should destroy them to as small a 

 degree as is possible. Strong provision should be made to 

 frighten the great bulk of the birds away from the gardens 

 at " ripening " time, but at that time only. 



