80 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



Yes, he replied, some of the men would buy 

 shot and use it early in the morning before their 

 master was about; but if the man I had seen had 

 been detected in the act, he would have been dis- 

 charged on the spot. It was not only because 

 the trees would be injured by shot, but this fruit- 

 grower was friendly to birds. 



Most fruit-growers, I said, were dead against 

 the birds, and anxious only to kill as many of 

 them as possible. 



It might be so in some places, he answered, 

 but not in the village. He himself and most of 

 the villagers depended, in a great measure, on 

 the fruit they produced for a living, and their 

 belief was that, taking one bird with another all 

 the year round, the birds did them more good 

 than harm. 



I then imparted to him the views on this bird 

 subject of a well-known fruit-grower in the north 

 of England, Mr. Joseph Witherspoon, of Chester- 

 le-Street. He began by persecuting the birds, 

 as he had been taught to do by his father, a 

 market-gardener; but after years of careful ob- 

 servation he completely changed his views, and is 

 now so convinced of the advantage that birds are 



