Birds Insect-destroyers. 135 



Chaffinches, and Greenfinches, help to clear the 

 growing vegetables of crawling pests at the 

 rate of hundreds and thousands a day, yet the 

 owners of the allotments have been accustomed 

 since their childhood to destroy every winged 

 thing that comes within their cruel reach. Short- 

 sighted, unobservant as they are, they decline to 

 be instructed on matters of which they know very 

 little, but stick to what they know like limpets. 

 For my part, I decline to protect my gooseberries 

 and currants from the birds ; their ravages are 

 grossly exaggerated, and what they get I do not 

 grudge them, considering their services during 

 the rest of the year. 1 



Beyond the allotments the ground falls to the 

 brook which I mentioned as descending from 

 Chipping Norton to join the Evenlode. This 

 brook is dammed up just below to supply an old 

 flour-mill, and has been so used for centuries ; its 

 bed is therefore well lined with mud, and when 

 the water is let out, which often happens (for the 



1 This year (1886) I took all the sparrows' nests on my 

 house, and examined the young birds. Only one or two young 

 peas and grains had been given them : they had been fed largely 

 on insects. 



