76 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



A single pair of Sparrows having young to maintain, will destroy upwards 

 of four thousand caterpillars in one week. Now, what would these four thou- 

 sand caterpillars destroy in one week of the food of man? Supposing that 

 three thousand of these caterpillars alone arrive to perfect butterflies and 

 moths, and lay their eggs, why we should be overwhelmed with a more serious 

 pest than the poor House Sparrow, which we could neither shoot, trap, or 

 poison! Who, I ask, has not observed the persecuted Sparrow dart upon 

 that all-destructive pest to our cabbages, etc., the Common White Butterfly, 

 while seeking a favourite spot to lay her eggs, which are to produce voracious 

 caterpillars per the thousand. It is not only the insect world on which the 

 Sparrow feeds, but we have watched them in fields of young wheat, and other 

 agricultural crops devouring snails and slugsj and it is quite amusing to watch 

 them hammering away at the shell of a snail, similar to the Thrush and 

 Blackbird, till they have reached their prey. Watch them again in a field 

 of beans, cleaning that important crop of Aphides. Again, who has not ob- 

 served them pulling the thatch out of the roofs of cottages during winter? 

 what is this for? not for mere wanton mischief, as is generally supposed, but 

 for the myriads of flies which are quartered there for the winter, to issue out, 

 in the summer to annoy us, our cattle, to pollute our food, and otherwise to 

 become an intolerable nuisance. The Sparrow frequently attempts the capture 

 of insects on the wing, but with poor success. Nature never intended him to 

 catch flies on the wing; though the hunting of butterflies by Sparrows trained 

 for the purpose, is said to be one of the royal sports in Persia. 



No sooner do the leaves of the hawthorn appear, than the Sparrows may 

 be seen to hunt the hedge-rows for insects, even before they have young ones. 

 We have watched them in large rose quarters in nurseries and gardens, and 

 on roses trained against walls and houses, clear them of every Aphis. A long 

 series of observations induces me to assert, which I do without the least fear 

 of contradiction from those acquainted with their real habits, that the Sparrow 

 prefers insect food to all other when he can procure it; in fact, many of their 

 summer haunts are chosen with reference to a supply of such food. What 

 we have here advanced is with reference to the rustic Sparrow. The town 

 Sparrow is diflFerently situated, — they are obliged to pick up all the nutritious 

 particles from the streets, roads, yards, and dunghills. Who has not observed 

 them hopping about the streets, picking up the filthy cereal fragments which 

 have been swept from the shops, imbibing from their infancy that boldness 

 and carelessness, which are so conspicuous in the character of a town- bred 

 Sparrow. Indeed, nothing can exceed the self-complacence of the town Sparrow. 

 You see him build his nest, and rear his young, amongst the richest tracery 

 of a church-roof or window; within the very coronet or escutcheon set up 

 over gate of hall or palace; nay, he would build in the Queen's crown itself, 

 if it were placed conveniently for his purpose. 



Perhaps by this time many of my readers will say hold hard Master Mac, 

 — you are only looking at one side of the question. Well Sir, for the other 



