FINCHES. 2 



this: From two pegs fixed in the ground stretch a piece 

 of wire, then procure a cat or kitten three parts grown, put 

 a leather collar on it, and attach ifc to the wire by a slip knot, 

 also of wire, so that the animal can at will range the whole 

 length of the pegs. The presence of the cat, combined with 

 the rattling of the wire at its every movement, have proved 

 a capital protection against the feathered marauders. For 

 this to answer properly, however, the trees should be in rows, 

 as in the case referred to, and the pegs fixed at the extremities, 

 the wire thus running parallel to them. 



The sparrow, in fact, needs to be kept in bounds rather 

 more than any other bird. 



The whole matter is one in which caution and reasoning 

 are especially necessary, since there are side issues and cross- 

 bearings on every point. The purely insectivorous birds, for 

 instance, might be thought, like Csesar's wife, to be above 

 suspicion ; yet it could be shown that, by eating a thousand 

 forms of life that prey on more injurious insects, they are 

 doing very dangerous labour, and many other instances could 

 be given. One thing only is certain, the majority of birds 

 do us yeomen-service, however much some few may transgress, 

 and any tampering with the often ridiculed but nevertheless 

 essential "balance of nature" is a matter deserving the 

 gravest and most serious consideration on all sides. 



BY STACK AND STUBBLE. 



While there can be no doubt we have lost, and are losing, 

 some of our larger indigenous birds the eagles, the kites, 

 the bustards, the ravens, choughs, and such like there seems, 

 011 the other hand, little recorded diminution among the 

 smaller feathered fauna of copse and hedgerow, in spite of 

 the unreasoning warfare just alluded to. We still have the 

 nightingale, " that sovereign of song " that Spenser loved, 

 the sparrows King Alfred fed, the "throstle, with his note 

 so true," who sung to Shakespeare in pleasant Avon wood- 



