33 2 Natures Militia 



They, like the thistles, have had things their own 

 way, for, as there were no sparrows in these parts 

 before, naturally no special checks to their undue 

 multiplication had been provided. 



In Europe these checks have been provided ; but 

 here, again, man has too often interfered with the wise 

 arrangements of nature, and when he has disturbed 

 the balance and brought upon himself a plague of 

 sparrows and other small birds, then, instead of 

 blaming his own want of foresight, he proceeds to 

 wage a war of extermination on these offenders, only 

 to find himself eaten up with grubs a little later. 



Of course, if sparrows and other small birds are 

 allowed to increase until there are not grubs enough 

 to feed them, they will naturally take whatever else 

 they can find. But it is unfair to blame the sparrow 

 for what is the farmer's own fault. 



The natural checks provided for keeping the small 

 birds in their proper place are the birds of prey ; and 

 these — many of the larger, and all the smaller — not 

 only kill small birds, for their own eating, but feed 

 their young entirely upon beetles, grubs, caterpillars, 

 flies, slugs, snails, and the various insects which attack 

 the green things. Many of them, too, hunt by night, 

 and so destroy the night-flying moths and beetles 

 which escape other birds. 



Yet birds of prey, especially owls and hawks, are 

 relentlessly persecuted by farmers and keepers, because 

 they occasionally steal a young chicken, or — more 

 heinous offence still — young pheasants and partridges, 

 and perhaps, yet more often, they are killed because it 

 is the fashion to kill them. 



But even owls and hawks have their avengers. 



