26 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



manner of their buds, and is consequently persecuted by 

 fruit growers. Fortunately he is not numerous, nor is he 

 difficult to scare away, when this milder treatment is adopted. 



Starlings are unquestionably useful. They scour our 

 meadow lands, effecting as they go a wonderful clearance of 

 wirewonn and the detestable "daddy-long-legs" in all its 

 stages. Amongst cattle, and even riding on the backs of 

 sheep, they are still useful, having a taste for the parasites 

 of such animals. On marsh lands they feed largely upon 

 small mollusca, worms, etc. Occasionally a raid is made 

 upon cherries, but there is no other indictment to be brought 

 against them. 



The swalloivs are worthy of our fullest friendship, I think 

 most people will allow. Leaving out of consideration the 

 facts they are the symbol of summer, and typify the very 

 poetry of motion, their existence is spent in keeping within 

 bounds the myriads of winged insects, which might other- 

 wise overwhelm us as Pharaoh was overwhelmed when he 

 had refused for a fourth time to set free the Israelites ! 



The sparrow, it will be noticed, we have reserved for the 

 last. The antiquity of his transgressions is beyond dispute. 

 Perhaps he fell firstly with the prince of the nether world 

 himself. In the most remote Egyptian hieroglyphics he is 

 represented as then old in iniquities, bearing a name, sa-me-di, 

 signifying "bird of destruction," and an outline on tomb 

 and obelisk indicating death and scarcity. This is a point 

 for his opponents which they have overlooked. His creden- 

 tials have been faulty from the beginning, his passport has 

 never been signed by the lords of creation ; and the farmer 

 of to-day, in offering a reward for his head, is only inheriting 

 a long and classic feud ! 



It is true the sparrow does not seem to care much for his 

 disrepute and outlawry. He is equally cheerful " on the house 

 tops " as rusticated. I doubt if he was happier, guided by 

 the ribbons Aphrodite held and fed [on gilded seeds of 

 Asphodel, than he is now, sharing the swine's breakfast and 



