BV A FRIEND OF THE FARMERS. 37 



wireworm, at any rate when they are traveUing through 

 the air. 



If people everywhere could be induced to take interest 

 in the preservation of martins, farmers and gardeners 

 would derive great benefit, not only from the good which 

 these birds would do them, but even more from the lessen- 

 ing of the numbers of sparrows which would ensue, seeing 

 that martins cannot be kept without killing the sparrows. 

 In no other way is this most desirable effect so likely to be 

 brought about, particularly in the case of sparrows which 

 come out from towns and villages to harry the fields. 

 Many townspeople like sparrows, thinking that they are 

 the only birds which will live in towns. They do not 

 seem to know that if there were no sparrows, they would 

 have, instead of them, plenty of martins, as much plea- 

 santer to look at as squirrels are than rats. White, in his 

 ' Natural History of Selborne,' said, ' There are few towns 

 or large villages but what abound with house-martins.' 

 The sparrows persecuted them badly in his time, and he 

 had had them shot when they deprived his martins of their 

 nests. Most towns, and the outskirts of London, would 

 certainly again be full of martins, if they had fair play. 

 How, far they would go into the crowded part of London 

 I cannot say, but, a few years back, some of their nests 

 were built at Westbourne Grove. This shows that they 

 could find food in or near the crowded parts. 



Among all the sentimental writing about birds, we 

 never find a word about the extermination of the best of 

 them by the worst. Yet the martins are no doubt the 

 most desirable birds to have about our houses, even apart 

 from their utility. They are kss graceful in their flight 

 than swallows, but their far greater numbers where they 

 can keep their nests, their habit of nesting and flying in 



