282 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ October 13, 1871. 



destroy ; but they must live all the year round, and therefore of 

 necessity eat fruit at a less rate than grubs. But the strongest 

 evidence in the case is to be drawn from the actual experience 

 of our French neighbours. In France the exterminators have 

 really had their way. Partly for the sake of protecting their 

 crops, and partly for the pleasure of eating their victims, the 

 small farmers on the other side of the Channel have long waged 

 war against small birds, and the minute subdivision of property 



has probably aided them in doing so with effect. ' The result is 

 that you may travel for leagues in France without hearing a 

 chirp or seeing the flutter of a feather along the hedge. But 

 that result has been attended with an incident by no means 

 satisfactory. \VTiat our naturalists have predicted as a possible 

 contingency in England has actually occurred in France. Be- 

 lieved from their feathered enemies, the grubs and insects have 

 multiplied to such a degree as to be alarmingly numerous and. 



destructive. A Commission has been appointed to sit upon the 

 subject, and its report was decidedly against the extermination 

 of birds." A similar report has been made by the Belgian Se- 

 cretary for the Home Department. 



We could dwell upon each of the small birds which frequent 

 our gardens, and show from our own observations and those of 

 published authorities that this testimony of Macgillivray, one of 

 the most careful observers of our native ornithology, is not only 

 true of the Chaffinch, but of all the others : — " The young are 



fed on insects of various kinds, which also form a principal pare 

 of the food of the old birds during the summer." We say, then^ 

 to all gardeners, Scare the birds, do not kill them. Keeping an. 

 old woman daily in a kitchen garden during the seed and fruit 

 season, will cost little and be the most conservative practice. 

 Evencherish the small birds, and then you wiU not incur the 

 anathema such as is uttered by the yeUowhammers when de- 

 prived of their eggs or young. " They continue some days about: 

 the place, chanting at intervals their dolorous ditty, which,, 



