2 8o The Great World's Farm 



petted and made much of, have so thriven and multipUed 

 that they are now a pest, and generally hated. But the 

 mischief is done, and is not to be so easily undone. They, 

 like the thistles, have had things their own way, for as 

 there were no sparrows in these parts before, naturally no 

 special checks to their undue multiplication had been 

 provided. 



The natural checks provided for keeping the small birds 

 in their proper place are the birds of prey; and these — 

 many of the larger, and all the smaller — not only kill small 

 birds for their own eating, but feed their young entirely 

 upon beetles, grubs, caterpillars, flies, slugs, snails, and 

 the various insects which attack the green things. Many 

 of them, too, hunt by night, and so destroy the night- 

 flying moths and beetles which escape other birds. 



Yet birds of prey, especially owls and hawks, are 

 relentlessly persecuted by farmers and keepers, because 

 they occasionally steal a young chicken, or — more heinous 

 offense still — young pheasants and partridges, and per- 

 haps yet more often they are killed because it is the 

 fashion to kill them. 



But even owls and hawks have their avengers. Spar- 

 rows, multiplied to excess, take to thieving, and commit 

 great depredations in the fields; and still worse are the 

 plagues of mice, which mar the land^ 



In Scotland and the north of England there has been a 

 great outcry of late against the swarms of mice and rats 

 which waste the fields and rob the barns, doing far more 

 damage than the sparrows. But why this increase in 

 sparrows and mice? Because the owls, hawks, stoats, 

 and weasels have been killed off. Just that, and nothing 

 else. 



