THE PLAGUE OF BIRDS 191 



bird-nesting in his youth may easily convince 

 himself of this fact by noticing in the spring the 

 prevalence of the nests of these birds nowadays 

 as compared with former times. All these birds 

 devour great quantities of both bush and tree fruit. 

 Their appetites are enormous, and the rapidity 

 with which they work is almost incredible. On 

 a particular tree in a district in mid-Kent some late 

 pears were allowed to hang last autumn until the 

 end of September. During a few hours in which 

 it was left unprotected a group of blackbirds 

 managed to leave scarcely a single pear untouched 

 of a bounteous crop, many of the larger fruit being 

 eaten quite to the stem. It is a matter of common 

 knowledge how greatly the sparrows have increased 

 in- many parts of England with the continuous 

 growth of towns and the comparative safety these 

 birds enjoy in urban neighbourhoods during the 

 nesting season. In the autumn the sparrows come 

 to fields some distance round London in almost 

 incredible numbers just as the grain is ripening. 

 The farmers say the birds come down from London 

 for the season like the hoppers and bring their young 

 ones with them. It must be heart-breaking to the 

 cultivator of the land who has to live by the hard- 

 won produce to see the havoc wrought by these 

 birds. The writer a season or two ago walked 

 along the edge of a seventy-acre wheat-field just 

 beyond the Outer London district. There had been 

 a scarcity of labour for a day or two in scaring the 

 birds, and the sparrows had settled on the crop in 

 vast crowds. He walked deep into the wheat in 

 several directions, but was unable to find a single 

 ear containing grain. It had all been picked out 



