EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN. 105 
this result has been brought about by means of a 
little judicious persecution. Shooting is a bad 
plan, even with an air-gun ; its effects are seen by 
all the birds, for they see more from their green 
hiding-places than we imagine, and it creates a 
general alarm among them. Those who wish to 
give the other birds a chance will only defeat their 
own object by shooting the sparrows. A much 
better plan for those who are able to practise it 
prudently is to take their nests, which are more 
exposed to sight than those of other birds; but 
they should be taken after the full complement of 
eggs have been laid, and only at night, so that 
others birds shall not witness the robbery and fear 
for their own treasures. Mr. Henry George, in 
that book of his which has been the delight of so 
many millions of rational souls, advocates the 
destruction of all the sharks and other large 
rapacious fishes, after which, he says, the ocean 
can be stocked with salmon, which would secure 
an unlimited supply of good wholesome food for 
the human race. No such high-handed measures 
are advocated here with regard to the sparrow. 
Knowledge of nature makes us conservative. It 
is so very easy to say, " Kill the sparrow, or shark, 
or magpie, or whatever it is, and then everything 
will be right." But there are more things in 
nature than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the 
