Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs.
- John Timbs
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.
366/404
![perty is ascribed to those tears by a kind of poetic superstition. It is supposed that the tears wliich the mother sheds to recall her absent offspring have the power of attracting towards the person possessing them the one most dear to that person. The precious drops are, therefore, eagerly purchased by lovers, as a kind of talisman to preserve and retain the affections of the beloved object! The AVar of Extermination that has been raised against Small Birds of late years has shown how much ignorance pre- vails upon the Habits of Birds. Clubs have been formed for their destruction, in consequence of their consumption of ripe crops. How, the harm may be considerable, but the farmer is more than compensated by the benefits of the bird ; actual and careful observation proving that the sparrow is most useful in killing, for food, flies, caterpillars, whe-worms, &c., which commit immense ravages among the products of the land. It has been calculated that a single pah of spar- rows, during the time they have their young to feed, destroy above three thousand three hundred caterpillars iii a week, besides other insects. Mr. Jesse, in his Country Life, relates that a Correspondent has attached to his garden a fruit- plantation of three acres, containing gooseberries, currants, raspberries, cherries, apples, pears, plums, &c., and that he never allows birds to he destroyed, or their 'nests talcen. The consef[uence is, that he is never annoyed with caterpillars. Yet, in Mr. Jesse’s neigld)ourhood, where a Bird Club is in full activity, caterpillars devastated an ajiple-orchard so un- sparingly, that women were employed to pick off every blossom, in order to save the trees. Tlien, we read of a gentleman protecting some choice gooseberry-bushes with a stout wire awning, to shield them from the attacks of the s])arrow and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28127420_0368.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
