192 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



and nothing of value remained but the straw. All 

 the excuses which used to be made for the sparrow 

 as to the supposed services rendered to the agri- 

 culturist have now been exploded. He is known 

 to be exclusively vegetarian, and so much a parasite 

 on man and his labours that he is never found in 

 woods or remote rural districts apart from human 

 habitations. The rat is indeed a comparatively 

 harmless creature compared with the common 

 sparrow. In the country he will rob a wheat-field 

 of its harvest in the manner described. In the 

 suburban garden he will clear the rows of young 

 peas as they appear above ground equally system- 

 atically. In the flower garden he will take the 

 foliage of the pinks or carnations, or the blooms of 

 the polyanthus, clearing the season's growth in a 

 few days with the same businesslike thoroughness. 

 Another most destructive bird which has much 

 increased in numbers in recent years in the South 

 of England is the lesser blue-tit. This little bird 

 is a great favourite in suburban gardens, where 

 boxes are often put up for it to nest in, and where 

 in the winter-time it is a common practice to hang out 

 pieces of cocoa-nut for it to feast on. The havoc 

 which this bird works is wrought in the winter- 

 time in gardens and fruit plantations. Its favourite 

 food at this season consists of the next season's 

 buds of the red currant and gooseberry bushes. 

 The damage which one little creature will work in 

 a day is astonishing, and can hardly be credited by 

 any one who has not actually seen it. The bird 

 will alight on a twig of a gooseberry bush and clear 

 every little rolled-up bud in which lies all the hidden 

 promise of next season. It will rapidly go through 



