APRIL. 
93 
great abundance of these and other birds here is, that at the back of my house is 
Mr. Sturts, Chetterwood Chase, of a thousand acres; and in front of my house is 
Ashley Wood, of a hundred acres. 
The birds being killed, the slugs and snails spoiled what they did not eat. 
The result was I gained nothing by the bird-killing. I have now discontinued 
this practice, and fence against the admitted damages done by birds in the best 
way that I can. Having never less than from twenty to thirty blackbirds and 
thrushes in and around my garden in the fruit season, I find it necessary to net as 
much as I can, and to keep a birdkeeper during the fruit season, who, with a tin 
canister and pebbles, scares away as many as she can. Yet, notwithstanding 
great demolition, I get more Baspberries and Strawberries than I know what to 
do with. 
I have no great amount of sentimentality, but there is no heart endued with 
sensibility that does not feel exhilirated by the first notes of the blackbird or 
thrush as, perched upon the topmost branch of an Elm, it cheers its mate, and 
announces to the public that an halcyon time is at hand. In our species the 
reverse is the case. It is the female that is destined by her sweet notes to beguile 
the cares of the male. 
When I hear the first spring notes of these harbingers I cannot but remember 
those beautiful words in Solomon’s Song, the second chapter, verses eleven and 
twelve. 
“ For, lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the 
singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” 
Or thus— 
“ For now the sullen Winter’s past, 
No more we fear the northern blast; 
No storms nor threatening clouds appear, 
No falling rain deforms the year. 
The dews and soft descending show’rs 
Nurse the new-born tender flow’rs. 
Hark ! the birds melodious sing, 
And usher in the new born Spring !” 
Birds, I think, may be destroyed moderately. By extermination we destroy 
the balance of creation. If birds increase upon us inordinately, no doubt they 
may be reduced with good effect; but if we exterminate them there is as little 
doubt that other evils will increase upon us. For a month or six weeks they may 
do us mischief; but during the remainder of the year they are doing us good. 
It is difficult to find a friend to sparrows. I used to be their enemy from 
perceiving the mischief done by them to the thatch; but one day seeing several 
of them eating the plant lice (Aphides) on my Bose-buds, I resolved to destroy 
them no more. There is one argument strongly in favour of the birds that we 
desire to destroy—viz., that countries which have them not will gladly pay great 
sums to procure them. 
I do not myself hold the doctrine of metempsychosis ; but if such a thing as 
the transmigration of the soul were possible, and I was compelled to pass into a 
bird, I would pass into a sea gull. I will venture to give my reasons, although it 
is said that those who give their reasons will bring themselves into a chancery suit. 
I would be a sea gull, then, because of its comparative immunity from danger, 
both as regards itself and its tender offspring, and also because of its facilities of 
obtaining its food. Ho bird of prey seeks its life. Man rarely fires at it, and 
even if he fires at it the chance is that he will miss it. In stormy weather it 
comes inland to my downs and picks up worms ; and so wary, so keen-eyed and 
high-flying is it, that the fowler cannot get near it, nor fetch it down without a 
minnie rifle. In fine weather it obtains its food by fishing. Its eggs are laid and 
its young reared in the lofty crags of rocks, where it is dangerous for boy or man 
to go. It can dig, fish, fly, swim, and stand on its head on the water like Blondin. 
For these reasons I would be a sea gull. There is no other bird that has so many 
immunities and facilities of pleasurable existence. 
Headers, if ever you transmigrate into a bird, beware of all kinds of game, 
birds of prey, or demolishers of any commodity that is produced on a farm or in 
a garden. 
Rushton. 
W. F. Badclyffe. 
