viii.] PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 135 



has nothing to do, presses his services on the residents, to 

 net the ivy on house or wall, to rout out the spaces under 

 the eaves, and make a clearance of every sparrow, finch, 

 thrush, swallow, or other winged creature. 



"Where the pest is not found it is where these bird- 

 destroyers are not allowed their will. When refused, civilly 

 or otherwise, they sneer or stare, and find something to do 

 in calling the neighbours to witness that the silly proprietors 

 will have no green peas, nor anything that grows in juicy 

 shoots; that the cherry trees and the roses will be dis- 

 budded ; that only the hardest green currant or two will 

 be left on each bunch ; that the gooseberries will be found 

 sucked hollow, and a full tithe of the cherries and strawberries 

 gone. Such is the spring prophecy ; but when summer has 

 come this particular summer strangers stop to wonder 

 at a garden here and there where all is green and bright, 

 amidst a series of damaged orchards, and kitchen gardens, 

 and bare copses ; and the paradise is sure to be the place 

 where the birds have been let alone. It is true, the rows 

 of peas have had to be covered for a while with thorns, 

 and some netting of bushes has been required, and some 

 precautions in regard to the fruit trees. It is true, also, 

 that the small birds have helped themselves to some of the 

 food of the poultry, and to a certain share of the fruit ; but 

 there is the difference that where the birds are banished 

 the precautions are of little or no avail, while they have a 

 good chance with the birds for partners. This year, for 

 instance, some proprietors have done everything they could 

 think of. They have syringed their plum-trees with nause- 

 ous decoctions to keep off the green fly ; they are sprinkling 

 road dust thickly over their gooseberries, and are dissolving 

 the white grubs into froth over whole banks or plots of 

 grass ; they are employing regiments of children to pick off 

 the caterpillars, paying them by the pint or quart, but they 

 cannot overtake the damage, and are almost ready to give 



