ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY 273 



is a most omnivorous feeder, and at certain seasons does 

 some damage : nevertheless, all the damage is fully repaid 

 by the good it does." Later, he says : " It must be admitted 

 by all those that are at all observant that they are great 

 insect-eaters and that their brood are chiefly reared on 

 insects." 



Mr. J. H. Gurney and Colonel Russell (9) have shown, 

 on the other hand, that 75 per cent, of sparrow food is corn, 

 10 per cent, weeds, 4 per cent, green peas, and only 6 per cent, 

 insects and 5 per cent, other matter. Young sparrows do not 

 have an exclusive insect diet, for they are fed chiefly upon 

 young corn in the milky state. In flower garden as well as 

 in field they are a veritable plague. One would think sparrow 

 clubs, as recommended by the Board of Agriculture, would 

 have some effect, but in the writer's village 4,000 odd sparrows 

 were brought in in 1905, and 6,000 in 1906, yet they are as 

 plentiful as ever. 



That there is something to be said in favour of the Sparrow 

 as a destroyer of chafers, crane flies, moths, etc., we know, but 

 the enormous loss in corn, crop seeds, flowers, etc., besides 

 the damage they do to thatch, is so great, it is necessary to take 

 all possible steps to destroy them. 



The Bullfinch {Pyrrhula europcea, Vieillot) has nothing to its 

 credit side, according to all practical men. But again dealing 

 from the farmer's point of view, the Rev. H. Slater (2, p. 24) 

 says it is " a perfectly harmless and altogether desirable neigh- 

 bour, as it feeds on hedge fruits, seeds of docks, thistle and 

 other weeds." Again, we must repeat, man can keep down 

 his weeds. It seems almost impossible to keep birds from 

 attacking buds of trees. A single bullfinch will do more harm 

 in a plantation of fruit than all the rest of the birds put 

 together. For six months they live entirely on fruit buds, and 

 as they come from the woods in autumn and continue till 

 March the loss they occasion can be well estimated. All 

 connected with fruit culture agree that they must be summarily 

 dealt with by trap, powder and shot. Mr. Slater's suggestion 

 of " throwing stones " to frighten them away can scarcely be 

 treated seriously. 



It has been stated that they feed their young on insects, but 

 they are really fed, as Mr. C. F. Archibald says (5, p. 81), "on 

 seeds softened by the parent." 



