FLOCKS OF BIRDS. 33 



before the crops have risen, or after the stubble is 

 ploughed. 



I should think that the corn farmers of Surrey lose 

 more grain from the birds than the agriculturists 

 whose tenancies are a hundred miles from London. In 

 the comparatively wild or open districts to which I 

 had been accustomed before I made these observations 

 I cannot recollect ever seeing such vast numbers of 

 birds. There were places, of course, where they were 

 numerous, and there were several kinds more repre- 

 sented than is the case here, and some that are 

 scarcely represented at all. I have seen flocks of 

 wood-pigeons immensely larger than any here; but 

 then it was only occasionally They came, passed 

 over, and were gone. Here the flocks, though not 

 very numerous, seem always to be about. 



Sparrows crowd every hedge and field, their numbers 

 are incredible ; chaffinches are not to be counted ; of 

 greenfinches there must be thousands. From the 

 railway even you can see them. I caught glimpses of 

 a ploughed field recently sown one spring from the 

 window of a railway carriage, every little clod of 

 which seemed alive with small birds, principally 

 sparrows, chaffinches, and greenfinches. There must 

 have been thousands in that field alone. In autumn 

 the numbers are even greater, or rather more 

 apparent. 



One autumn some correspondence appeared lament- 

 ing the scarcity of small birds (and again in the spring 

 the same cry was raised) ; people said that they had 

 walked along the roads or footpaths and there were 

 none in the hedges. They were quite correct the 



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