Birds. 7741 



a nicely wooded district, to observe the great want of small birds ; I mean of those 

 birds which are so common in Great Britain, and which according to all accounts 

 were formerly numerous all over French territory. Throughout the whole of the 

 North of France, too, the same want is apparent. The scarcity of birds extends to 

 Belgium also. Probably the division of landed properly into small tracts is one of the 

 causes in both these countries. I trust that the law of primogeniture may be con- 

 tinued in Englaud,5 as her parks and magnificent country seats are the admira- 

 tion of all foreigners who visit this land. Mr. Saville's observation on the scarcity of 

 nightingales is, in my opinion, a little misplaced, as both that bird and the blackcap 

 (named in Jersey and France the " fauvette") are very common abroad for a time, 

 during their short song and short stay, in France as well as England. There are a 

 few nightingales every May near my residence here, but as soon as they are heard by 

 the birdcatchers they disappear in a week or two, and are seldom allowed to breed. 

 About thirty-six years ago I planted nearly twenty acres of land near a former resi- 

 dence, and while the trees were young at least a dozen nightingales frequented these 

 coverts, but as the young trees became large these birds deserted the coverts gra- 

 dually, and at twenty-three years' growth the trees were visited and taken possession 

 of by rooks, which built their nests there. The nightingale is fond of low underwood, 

 hazel-nut bushes, and very young oaks ; and when he sings in an old oak tree he 

 seldom sits above twenty feet from the ground. These birds are, as Mr. Saville 

 observes, becoming scarcer every year ; but at the same time I hear of their appearing 

 in localities lately where they have not been heard for many years. As to damage 

 done by rooks and sparrows, there have been many letters upon the subject in that 

 useful newspaper the ' Field.' Many of these letters are written by persons who evi- 

 dently never lived long in the country, or, if they did, have not been acute observers. 

 To say that rooks do no damage to fields of sown wheat, seed potatoes, &c., is quite 

 ridiculous. When these birds come in large flocks and live near, they must be kept 

 off. There is no one fonder of rooks than I am myself, but I have often been obliged 

 to make examples of a few in the spring, when they took a fancy to my fresh-planted 

 seed potatoes. I have had more than one rookery take possession of my elm trees, 

 and they have been preserved by me and my tenants for these thirty-five years. The 

 same may be said of sparrows. When they occur in flocks of several hundreds and 

 sometimes thousands, in August and September, they do much mischief, although 

 they destroy myriads of caterpillars during the summer. Farmers make a great out- 

 cry at the damage done to their corn by sparrows, and many of the same men allow 

 these birds to have two or three broods of young, during April, May and June, in and 

 near their farm-yards, without molestation, until the corn is ripe. The jay, the magpie 

 and the carrion crow are more or less destructive to the eggs and young of game. 

 The jay destroys the eggs of the wood pigeon, the pheasant and partridge, and nume- 

 rous other birds ; the carrion crow destroys the eggs and young of every species of 

 game, poultry, very young ducks and chickens, and is a most destructive bird ; the 

 magpie is nearly as bad. The latter bird I have seen knock down a young blackbird 

 on the wing, and commence its demolition in a second. The late severe winter has 

 considerably lessened the number of thrushes, many having been shot by the nume- 

 rous idlers who were out in troops, and many others killed by the intensity of the cold, 

 the thermometer being nearly forty degrees below freezing point on two or three 

 nights. I have observed five of the goldencrested wren since last winter. This lively, 

 diminutive species, the smallest of our English birds, probably being unused to seek 



