THE FAERY YEAR 



seems talking at once, and each with a different 

 tale to tell. One reviles rooks, a second starlings, 

 a third bullfinches ; others acquit rooks, starlings, 

 and bullfinches of crime among the various crops, 

 but want the blood of the jay, the daw, and the 

 crow. 



There is one bird at whose name an agreeing 

 chorus of disapproval breaks forth the most popular 

 bird in England, the most observed, amusing, hated. 

 The bird-lovers are for destroying it, the farmers 

 and gardeners also. It is to-day, as David found it, 

 alone on the housetops. I can think only of one 

 Authority in its favour St. Matthew x. 29. A 

 great admirer of the house sparrow which gives 

 delight and amusement to thousands of grown-up 

 people and children I admit the case against him 

 is black, even taking into account the large amount 

 of leaf-devouring insect life which he takes during 

 the early summer. But only the incurious suppose 

 that the flocks of sparrows at the corn ricks are 

 composed of sparrows only. Four or five other 

 species of birds often help largely to swell these 

 flocks. It has been interesting to me, so early as 

 March, to hear the titter of the bunting amid these 

 flocks, and the agreeable gossip of the linnets. 

 The yellow bunting, too, is attached to oat ricks, 

 as expert as any sparrow in drawing forth the 

 grain. 



I think the starling, on the whole, must be 

 beneficial to farming ; I suspect the bullfinch among 

 the birds ; I am sure of the great good the rook 

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