SMALL BIRDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 262, 4 October 1875, Page 2

SMALL BIRDS

To thb Editor op tub • Evening Mah..' Sin — The indefatigable and ze»lous Secretary of the Ac -liniatiaation Society is subject to curses both loud and deep on accoint of tha introduction of tbe "warblers of the grove" and other small birds of dear old; England. Perhaps the 'following extract* from a beautiful work publish, d some fifty years ago will somewhat mollify the wrath of the denunciators as well as Congo c the denunciatei. The work is entitle! 'The Poket Cyclopoeiii of Natur«l Phenomena, for the use of mariners, slicp'ierds, gar <en«irs, ani others." The authors are T. F. Forater, Esq., F.LS.. and T. Forster, MB., F.L S., M.A.S., M.M.S., &;c. It is a beautifully written work, «nd should be in every country library, if not In every private one. Br . Forster observes on small birds:— " Bullfinches return to our gardens, and are very useful, destroying those bit da alone which contain the larvse of destruct ye insects. "Sp rrows congregate in August and September, and it is then that they feed in flo ks on the standing corn, and ace mistakenly destroyed for the mischief they do Intelligent farmers, however, are now beginning to be aware that these as well as most birds <fo mote goad by tf>e vermin they destroy in spring and trimmer than they do mischief by the grain and fruit they eat in autumn " I have lately watched the cheerful and lively mokamoka fly from tree to tree, selecting here a bud and there a bud, picking out the destroying insect. But vulgar prejudices are very strong in this respect. Who has not known in the old country. •• orchardmen" employed for a season to destroy bullfinches, and parishes that paid a poll-tax f r every sparrow's head produced at the vistry meeting of rustic wiseacres? Frtderic the Great of Pruss ; a hai tbe small bit ds 1 destroyed, so that, in a tew seasons there was very little fruit. The Rev G. C. Jeoner relates that a neighbor shot every hedge-sparrow that came into his gar.'en, 'not aware that they were harmless as respects garden robbery, and in ;some ways the most, useful of familiar birds." Th* avicide, when told of this, and in good double Gloucester dialect :—" l doaot ceare; they-, rob the earn two shilling abushel for all that." Ifc is we 1 known ihafc the floe old elms in Birdcage Walk, in S*. Jaraea Park, London, were preserved by the woodpeckers, whi h devoured those insects wh >se eggs •* decorticated the elm.*' Hoping the judgment ponounced by these practical naturalists will allay to some extent tbe feara of the corn and Iruit growers. I am, &c, E. -Tucker. Pangatotara, Oct. 1, 1871.