THE SMALLER BIRDS 



the insectivorous bird, has a beak that is fine and 

 slender, in delicacy proportioned to the softness of 

 its prey. To this number belong the nightingale, 

 the warbler, the fallow-finch, and the wagtail. Agri- 

 culture has no better defenders against the ravages 

 of worms than these little birds with slender beaks, 

 voracious devourers as they are of larvae and in- 

 sects. 



"But the granivorous birds have certain grave 

 faults : some of them are addicted to pilfering in the 

 grain-fields and know how to get the wheat out of 

 the ear, and some even come boldly to the poultry- 

 yard to share with its inmates the oats thrown to 

 them by the farmer 's wife. Others prefer the juicy 

 flesh of fruit, and know sooner than we when the 

 cherries are ripe and the pears mellow. Such fail- 

 ings, however, are amply atoned for by services ren- 

 dered. The granivores pick up in the fields an in- 

 finite number of seeds of all sorts which, if left to 

 germinate, would infest our crops with weeds. 



"To this role of weeder they add a second not less 

 meritorious. Grain and seeds are, it is true, their 

 regular diet; but insects are to few of them so des- 

 picable as to be refused when sufficiently plentiful 

 and easy to catch. Indeed, we can go still further 

 in our commendation of these birds: in their early 

 days when, feeble and f eatherless, they receive their 

 nourishment by the beakful from their parents, many 

 of them are fed on insects. 



"Let us take for example the house-sparrow. 

 Here we have, it must be admitted, an inveterate 



