SMALL BIRDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 292, 3 November 1875, Page 2

SMALL BIRDS.

To the Editor of the ' Evening Maii. *

Sir— For several se-tsons past 'here has been a famine in some of tha Stites and territories of the United States, owi.g to the destruction of the crops »y crickets, locusts, &c, and these insects have in reasel in undue proportion from the lack of small birds in tbe several districts where the famine occurred. The number of smi.ll birds in England (< specially in the south and south west, where it is generally acknowled good crops are usually grown) hns been noted aa a remarkable nnd agreeub'e feature by all the American writers in Eoglish scenery, &c. At the celebrate » Tiptree Farm, in Essex, the best crop of wheat last season was that in a field a-' joining the poultry yard, to which at le-st 150 head of poultry had constant acce«s from the time the wheat was sown until it was threshed.

A settler in tbis valley informed me that he waa very fldgetty about his poultry— particularly the turkeys— at one time; bnt at last he let them have full swing, and he has since had better crops and fewer crick< t-». The failure of crops in many departm.nts of France has baen attributed to the peculiar and wholesale method of des Toying small birds br tho peasant farmers to supply tha Parisian markets with these delicate creatures for the gratification of the appetites of the gourmets of tha French capital. I am, -cc, . E. Tucker. P S ; — I have been told that I tnve had a " terrible mnuling " by some writers io the Colonist. lam glad of it : the more the matter is discussed tha better. The way to keep down the bir^a to a just proportion, I shou'd t' ink, is the old English one of birdsnesting by the boys.