60 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



suddenly sprang at my face, MS I was stooping over her place of 

 concealment the gloom had prevented my seeing her and seized 

 me by the cartilage of the nose, to which she hung with all the 

 obstinacy of a bull-dog. I succeeded in getting her oft' by plung- 

 ing my face into a tub of water. 



When ratting, some ferrets require muzzling, as otherwise they 

 will, if they capture a rat, lie upon the carcase, and, after satiating 

 themselves witli the blood, fall asleep there ; if they do so, you 

 may get them out by means of smoke, but the use of the muzzle 

 is better. This consists of a little round bit of leather, having a 

 hole in the centre, through which the ferret's nose is passed, and 

 attached with side straps to a collar which encircles the neck. Be 

 careful that there be no loose straps or strings about it, as these 

 might become entangled with roots, &c., in the hole, and thus keep 

 the ferret prisoner till starved to death. 



SECTION II. 

 PREDACIOUS BIRDS. 



EAGLES KITES AND HAWKS CROWS, RAVENS, ETC. 



OF all birds, it may be said with truth, that they do more good 

 than harm. Did farmers observe their habits closely, they would 

 know this. Even the crow, detested and destructive as he is, is 

 destructive only for a very few days in each year, and his depreda- 

 tions, in a perceptible manner, are ordinarily confined to the corn- 

 field, just at the season of the sprouting of the seed, and the ap- 

 pearance of the blade above the ground. He somewhat infests 

 newly-sown wheat, oats, and barley. And here ends his de- 

 predations. The benefit that his race confers is the destruction 

 of myriads of destroying worms. Did the crow not eat these, they 

 would do far more injury than lie does. They cannot be deterred 

 from destroying he may. The robin and the woodpecker are 

 pests among the cherries, when ripe, and yet they consume insects, 

 worms, caterpillars, in vast numbers, that living, would destroy far 

 more fruit than the birds. Indeed, it may be said that without 

 birds, we should never grow any fruit. The owl and the hawk, 

 that destroy occasionally a chicken, are mousers, and in the-destruo- 

 lion of mice and moles, repay amply the evil they do. 



