42 THE HOUSE SPARROW: 



have been in great part displaced by the destruction by 

 the martins of the winged insects which would breed 

 the larvae which blackcaps and garden warblers feed on. 



Flycatchers, which live on flying insects, and wagtails 

 and redstarts, which do so to a great extent, are at least 

 as numerous here as I ever saw them anywhere. Some 

 of the wilder birds, as the ring-dove, stock-dove and 

 turtle-dove, always breed near the house, and are not 

 disturbed by shooting the sparrows, having quite sense 

 enough to disregard noise which does them no harm. I 

 may here remark that the sparrows are not often shot in 

 the trees ; it is almost useless to try to do so, to say 

 nothing of the risk of shooting other birds by mistake. 

 When a {g.\v sparrows, avoiding the buildings, try to live 

 in the trees, the fowls' food soon lures them to their 

 fate. 



It seems to me that the numbers of sparrows have long 

 been and still are greatly increasing, till they have become in 

 many parts a serious evil to the farmer. The reasons for 

 this increase are plain enough ; sparrows breed very fast ; 

 I know not how many times in the year, but many of 

 them lay soon after April 20 : they nest all through May, 

 June, and July, and a few have come to build in my 

 martins' nests in the first half of August. But the 

 numbers of any wild creature depend less on its natural 

 rate of increase than on checks, the chief being the want 

 of food at the worst times, especially in the case of 

 domestic parasites like rats, mice, and sparrows. These 

 have no natural enemies in the way of wild birds or 

 beasts of prey to thin their numbers to any extent ; 

 consequently they must be kept down by man, or they 

 will only be limited by starvation, and will always 

 increase up to the point which the lowest period of food 



