i 9 2 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



testimony to Mr. Morris with regard to the great 

 usefulness of birds, and out of such evidence he 

 always contrived to make capital for his friends 

 the Sparrows and other small birds : 



"HESTON, HOUNSLOW, December 22, 1879. 

 " MY DEAR SIR, Knowing the great interest you 

 take in birds must be my excuse for troubling you 

 with this letter. I have seven acres of garden 

 ground, on which I cultivate fruit for market, and 

 for the last twenty-five years have used all the 

 means in my power to protect all kinds of birds, 

 and the result has been that I have had better crops 

 of fruit than my neighbours and my trees more free 

 from blight. I am in the habit of feeding the birds 

 all through the winter, but, alas ! this year all my 

 little friends seem gone, and the food that I give 

 them remains for a long time untouched. A pet 

 Robin who has for three years come when I called 

 it, and perched on my finger, and eaten from my 

 hand, came to me the other day with a broken leg, 

 having been caught in a trap, and the next day a 

 tame Blackbird came without a tail and his leg 

 broken. Both died very soon after. Surely there 

 ought to be a law to protect birds from cruelty as 

 well as animals, for I feel convinced that neither 

 farmer nor gardener can do without them. I beg 

 to remain, dear Sir, yours very truly, 



" F. E. TRIMMER." 



Every naturalist must deplore the way in which 

 our rarer birds are being gradually exterminated, 



