On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 11:01:23 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The message m
from AndWhyNot contains these words:



Remember however that sparrows (all species) are in rapid decline, so
don't be too cross with then ............

Might not be any in ten years !!!!

Not in decline here. *AND* I left the ivy on the gable end this year for
them to nest in, *AND* when the builder replaces the barge-boards I'm
getting him to fix some communal nestboxen up there just for the
sparrows,

Good Fellow !!!

I remember the days when the sky would be darkened with sparrows at
harvest, and we boys were each given a muzzle-loading shotgun, a flask
of powder, a bag of dust-shot, wads, caps and a measure, and great was
the slaughter withal.

The little corpses were skinned by the farmer's wife and the breasts
made into sparrow pie, which was taken cold, along with a hot baked
potato, butter, and pickled onions, and washed down with beer drawn from
a wooden cask through a wooden tap *AFTER* all the stooks (shocks) were
raised.

Gunpowder smoke, sweat from lifting sheathes into stooks, dust from the
wheat: never did a boy deserve a bath more when he got home, I can tell
you.

And all with depth-charges on account of the onions.

Sorry ..... Good OLD fellow ............ :-)