284 SUMMER 



house in Kensington, that he tugged and tugged until, amid 

 the laughter of a group of observers, he pulled the whole 

 structure in ruin over his head, and the two fell in avalanche 

 together. The towns provide sufficient building sites, and 

 on the whole sufficient food. But when the young are well 

 fledged a certain desire of fresh fields comes over a consider- 

 able proportion of sparrows, especially those in the Midland 

 towns. Whether food grows scarce or whether they desire 

 fresher food is not clear, but when August comes and the 

 corn is whitening to harvest the birds flock to the country. 

 They go a-harvesting for a summer holiday. 



This marauding expedition is on a great scale. The 

 birds are as thick as midges about the edges of the fields, 

 eating grain with a greed hardly less than that of the trout 

 at Mayfly time. It is one of many severe charges brought 

 by the country against the town that the streets breed these 

 birds to the destruction of the staple industry of the country. 

 The habit appears to be new, at any rate in its present 

 dimensions. It is a result of the progressive dominance, 

 in mind and fact, of town over country. 



But apart from this particular migration of sparrows it is 

 remarkable, though not very much remarked, how the food of 

 birds alters with the progress of the seasons. This is largely, 

 of course, a matter of necessity. You cannot have woolly- 

 bear caterpillars at Christmas or ripe corn in June. But 

 instinct and physical needs work in co-operation with the 

 seasons, and our own birds are those which have the instinct 

 and the bodily adaptability to obey the almanac in their 

 dietary. Even the sparrows in spring enjoy animal food. 

 All young things seem to need insect food, and to grow 

 faster the more of it they can get. But as the young reach 

 their full growth in summer the desire dwindles in those we 

 call the grain-eating birds. Sparrows do not eat insects for 



