By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



87 



Church Rate sit upon our forefathers ; and this continued to 

 within fifteen years ago, when my predecessor considered Sparrow 

 killing scarcely a legitimate Church expense. Now I am not about 

 to deny that Sparrows are mischievous, or to inveigh against their 

 destruction, which I suppose to a certain extent is rendered neces- 

 sary : but I would observe that the cause of their immoderate 

 abundance is the indiscriminate extermination of all our birds of 

 prey, useful and mischievous alike, at the hands of the gamekeepers 

 and others ; for I contend that, was nature allowed to preserve her 

 own balance, we should not witness the extinction of one species 

 and the enormous increase of another, to the manifest injury of our 

 Fauna : and with reference to the foregoing remarks, before taking 

 leave of the above named Churchwardens' accounts, I would make 

 two observations which strike me in perusing its pages, viz ; the 

 great abundance of foxes, polecats and such like vermin and the 

 paucity of Sparrows 100 years ago, as compared with later entries : 

 for whereas in the middle of the last century 4 foxes, 6 polecats, and 

 3 0 dozen sparrows seem to have been the annual tale of the slain ; 

 at the beginning of the present century 2 foxes, 1 polecat, and 60 

 dozen sparrows form the average sum total ; whereas the last entry 

 recording such items, viz. A.D. 1840 shows that, whereas foxes and 

 polecats are exterminated from the Parish, as far as their persecution 

 by Church Rate is concerned, no less than 178 dozen Sparrows met 

 with an untimely end in that year : proving that notwithstanding 

 the persecution raised against them, sparrows still increase upon 

 us, and have enormously increased since the universal destruction 

 of so many of our birds of prey, for whose behoof they seem in 

 great part to have been provided. 



" Greenfinch " (Coccothraustes chlons) also extremely common 

 throughout the County, and residing with us the whole j^ear, and 

 easily distinguished from all others by its olive green dress tinged 

 with yellow and grey. It is a very pretty bird, and is sometimes 

 styled the " Green Grosbeak " from the large thick form of its 

 bill : this gives it rather a clumsy appearance, and indeed in shape 

 it is somewhat heavy and compact, and has none of the elegance 

 which distinguishes other members of its family : it can boast of 



