OF BIRDS. 
ic 3 
traps, and give great trouble to thofe who attempt 
to catch them, and even then almoft every effort 
is in vain, for they breed three times a year, and 
if you deftroy their neft, in two days they will 
make another; if you break their eggs, in ten 
days, they will lay again; if you (hoot at them 
when they are upon the roof of the houfe, they 
only conceal themfelves the better in your 
barns. 
i hofe who have kept Sparrows in cages, fay 
that a pair will conlume near twenty pounds 
weight of corn, in a year; we may judge from 
hence how deftruclive they mull: be. It is true 
they feed their young very much on intc&s, and 
that they themfelves deftroy many infe£ts, yet 
grain feems to be their favourite food. On ac¬ 
count of the mifehief they do, a price is fomc- 
times fet upon their lives, in many villages; in 
fome parts of Germany, every year, each peqfant 
is obliged to produce the heads of a certain num¬ 
ber of Sparrows. 
Yet however mifehievous they may feem, ns 
Providence has made no animal whatever but to 
produce fome good, we may be allured that the 
Sparrow anfwers fome defirable purpofes. 
Mr. De Buffon attempted to deftroy them by 
burning fulphur, mixed with fome rol'tn and char- 
E 4 coal 
