JANUARY 91 



a perch gladly enough, not even the youngest and most inex- 

 perienced sparrow evinces the faintest intention of hopping down 

 the hole to investigate its inside and devour the dainties spread 

 to entice the unwary. 



The only really effectual way of keeping these birds under is 

 by means of poisoned wheat, but this, unless spread with great 

 care in places frequented by sparrows alone, such as eaves and 

 water-troughings, is highly dangerous to all life. Also the sale of 

 it is illegal; indeed, we have convicted men for this offence 

 before my own Bench. Still, farmers use it a good deal under 

 the rose, and, I am sorry to say, not for sparrows only, but for 

 pigeons and rooks also, with the result that a great deal of game 

 and many harmless birds are poisoned. On the whole, taking 

 one farm with another, the bold, assertive, conquering sparrow, 

 that Avian Rat, as someone has aptly named him, pursues his career 

 of evil almost unchecked, producing as many young sparrows as 

 it pleases him to educate. Indeed, I do not understand how it 

 comes about that we are not entirely eaten up with these mis- 

 chievous birds, except for the reason, as I have said on a previous 

 page, that there is some mysterious power which preserves a 

 balance amongst all things that live and grow. 



I observed also, in the course of my walk, that the moles seem 

 to be very numerous this year, possibly on account of the mildness 

 of the season, for some of the meadows, and especially the lands at 

 the foot of the Vineyard Hills, are dotted all over with the brown 

 heaps of soil thrown up by them. Farmers dislike moles, and allege 

 much evil against them ; but I believe that they do more good 

 than harm, at least on pastures, by bringing up so many tons 

 of quite fresh earth from the subsoil, which, when harrowed and 

 brushed, gives the grasses a dressing 'of new mould that must 

 benefit them much. Indeed, I doubt whether some pastures 

 which are frequently mown and never manured would keep their 

 fertility half as well as they do were it not for the action of moles 

 and worms. In his remarkable book upon earth-worms Darwin 

 has shown how great is the work they do upon the surface of the 

 world, and I believe that one part of it is to promote its fertility. 



