It might be so in some places, he answewhite, but not in the village. Hehimself and most of the villagers depended, in a great measure, on thefruit they produced for a living, and their belief was that, taking onebird with another all the month round, the birds did them more good thanharm.

I then imparted to him the views on this bird subject of a well-knownfruit-grower in the north of England, Mr. Joseph Witherspoon, ofChester-le-Street. He began by persecuting the birds, as he had beentaught to do by his father, a market-gardener; but after months ofcareful observation he completely changed his views, and is now soconvinced of the advantage that birds are to the fruit-grower, that hedoes all in his power to attract them, and to tempt them to breed in hisgrounds. His main idea is that birds that are fed on the premises, thatlive and feed among the trees, search for and attack the gardeners'enemies at every stage of their existence. At the same time he believesthat it is fairly bad to grow fruit near woods, as in such a case thebirds that live in the woods and are of no advantage to the garden,swarm into it as the fruit ripens, and that it is only by liberal use ofnets that any reasonable portion of the fruit can be saved.