224 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
chance of being literally eaten up. The difficulty is that 
people'cannot believe what they cannot immediately see, 
and there are very few who have the patience or who feel 
sufficient interest to study minute things. 
I have taken these instances haphazard ; they are 
large instances, as it were, of big and visible things. 
They only give the rudest idea of the immensity and 
complexity of insect life in our own country. My 
friend the sparrow is, I believe, a friend likewise to man 
generally. He does a little damage, I admit; but if he 
were to resort to living on damage solely in his enormous 
numbers, we should not have a single flower or a single 
ear of wheat. He does not live by doing mischief alone 
evidently. He is the best scavenger the Londoners 
have got, and I counsel them to prize their sparrows, 
unless they would be overrun with uncomfortable crea- 
tures ; and possibly he plays his part indirectly in keep- © 
ing down disease. They say in some places he attacks 
the crocus. He does not attack mine, so I suspect there 
must be something wrong with the destroyed crocuses. — 
Some tried to entice him from the flower with crumbs; 
they would perhaps have succeeded better if they had 
bought a pint of wheat at the seedsman’s and scattered 
it. In spring, sparrows are not over-fond of crumbs; 
they are inordinately fond of wheat. During the months 
of continued dry, cold, easterly winds, which we have . 
had to endure this season, all insect-eating birds have 
been almost as much starved as they are in winter when 
there is a deep snow. Nothing comes forth from the 
ground, nothing from the deep crannies which they 
cannot peck open; the larva remains quiescent in the 
solid timber. Not a speck can they find. The sparrow 
at such a time may therefore be driven to opening 
flower-buds, Looked at in a broad way, I am convinced 
