THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 301 



animate or inanimate, is fighting- against mankind, 

 unless with Jasonic skill he compels them to turn their 

 weapons against each other, and by mutual battles to 

 consummate his peaceful victories. 



In our own country, where individual energies are 

 permitted to develop themselves without any restric- 

 tions of the ruling powers, no particular results have 

 happened from the prevalent misapprehension respect- 

 ing the friends or foes of husbandry ; but in a neigh- 

 bouring land, famous for its logical precision of thought, 

 its pitiless deduction of conclusions from premises, and 

 the all-pervading influence of the supreme authorities, 

 the little birds being known to eat seeds, strip the 

 spring branches of their buds, and rob the autumnal 

 trees of their produce, were condemned as destructive 

 to the tenants, and, by the inexorable logic of facts, 

 doomed to death. Eewards were offered throughout 

 the land for the heads of small birds, just as in olden 

 and foolish times the British churchwardens offered 

 twopence per dozen for the heads of sparrows, and the 

 juvenile population that was too young, and the adult 

 population that was too idle to work, soon gathered a 

 goodly number of heads and duly received their reward. 



The results, however, were different, owing to two 

 causes : the one being the universality of the measure 

 in the one country, and its partial enforcement in the 

 other ; and the second being that whereas the judicial 

 authorities abroad, after paying for the birds' heads, 

 took care to destroy them, the parochial authorities at 



