Bathgate. — The Sparrow Plague and its Remedy. 69 



in which the Department referred to performs its work. In 

 reading it I was struck by the judicial manner in which the 

 compilers have marshalled the facts collected, and I think that 

 no unprejudiced person would fail to concur in the verdict, 

 which is a complete condemnation of the sparrow. I do not 

 purpose following in any detail the various ramifications of 

 the inquiry, but I shall refer to some of the evidence adduced. 



The Department dissected at Washington 522 sparrows, 

 of which 338 were obtained in that neighbourhood and 184 

 were sent thither in alcohol from other places, whilst another 

 lot of 114 were dissected at Westchester by competent men. 

 The birds were obtained from time to time throughout an 

 entire year ; the contents of the stomach were carefully 

 examined and the results tabulated. Any which contained, 

 or were suspected of containing, insect-remains — 102 in all — 

 were sent to Professor C. V. Riley, of the Entomological De- 

 partment, who further examined the contents and classified 

 the insect-remains, the horny head of a caterpillar or the leg 

 or wing-case of a beetle being sufficient to enable him to de- 

 termine at least the genus to which the insect belonged. Out 

 of the 102 stomachs examined by Professor Riley 92 were 

 found to contain insect-remains. In 47 of these noxious 

 insects were found, beneficial insects in 50, and insects which 

 were harmless or of no economic importance in 3L. So that 

 out of these 522 sparrows only 47, or a trifle over 9 per cent., 

 had conferred the slightest benefit on humanity. 



In a pamphlet entitled " The House-sparrow," published 

 by the late Miss Ormerod, the well-known entomologist, and 

 Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, the authors arrive at the conclusion 

 that the sparrow is an unmitigated pest, and support their 

 view by evidence drawn from various sources. Amongst 

 others quotations are given from a publication by Mr. J. H, 

 Gurney, of Keswick Hall, near Norwich, England, also en- 

 titled "The House-sparrow," which contains a table showing 

 the contents of the stomachs of 694 sparrows examined by 

 qualified observers in diflerent places at regular intervals 

 throughout the whole year, and the results are summarised by 

 Mr. Gurney as follows : "It may be said that about 75 per 

 cent, of an adult sparrow's food during its life is corn of some 

 kind. The remaining 25 per cent, may be roughly divided as 

 follows : Seeds of weeds, 10 percent. ; green peas, 4 per cent,; 

 beetles, 3 per cent. ; caterpillars, 2 per cent. ; insects which 

 fly, 1 per cent. ; other things, 5 per cent. In young sparro'ws 

 not more than 40 per cent, is corn, while about 40 per cent, 

 consists of caterpillars, and 10 per cent, of small beetles." 



In Hardwicke's " Science Gossip" for 1883 it is recorded 

 that Mr. A. Willis, of Sandal, examined eighty-seven sparrows' 

 stomachs in 1882, and found insects in eight only. 



