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without seeing some Sparrows industriously hunting for insects with which to feed 

 their young, and should anyone have a Sparrow's nest under his verandah or about 

 his house in such a position that some of the food brought by the parent birds to 

 their young will fall where it can be seen, the proof that they do eat insects, and in 

 large quantities too, will be very clear. The old birds also eat insects at this season, 

 varying their diet with such undigested grain as they may find in horse droppings, 

 and with bread crumbs and such like refuse from houses. 



Sparrows, like the majority of birds, will not often eat hairy caterpillars, but 

 I have seen them eat the spiny larvae of Vanessa antiopa, which is one of our shade 

 tree pests that few birds will touch. Besides this I have seen them take moths of 

 almost any kind, including the large Cecropia and Luna moths and the Tussock moth 

 (both the winged male and the wingless female), beetles of many kinds, even such 

 large species as the aquatic Dytiscus, which they find on the sidewalks beneath the 

 electric lights to which the beetles are attracted at night, the green cabbage worm 

 (the larvjB of the cabbage butterfiy)— of these they eat great numbers. They also 

 hunt about fences, and take the pupae of this same butterfly. Currant worms and the 

 mature insects are also taken in large numbers, as are also grasshoppers, and both 

 the black and green aphides that occur on apple trees, and rose bushes, are eaten 

 greedily. On one occasion a flock of Sparrows completely cleaned off the green 

 aphis from some rose bushes near my windows. It took them several days to finish 

 their work, but they did it effectually in the end. 



About harvest time the Sparrows show their grain-eating proclivities. They 

 then gather into large flocks, and, leaving the town where they were bred, visit the 

 surrounding country and make serious raids upon the wheat and oats, and do more 

 damage while the grain is standing by beating it out than eating it. It is in early 

 spring, however, that the worst trait in the sparrow's character becomes apparent. 

 Vegetation awakens after the long winter's sleep ; the trees put forth their buds, and 

 seedlings break through the soil. The Sparrow, probably needing an alterative after 

 the hard fare of the winter, attacks all these ; nothing green comes amiss to him, and 

 then the gardener, wrathful at the loss of prospective fruit, vegetables and flowers, 

 forgets the good qualities the bird has, and would have the whole tribe exterminated. 

 Whether or not he would be the gainer by this is somewhat difficult to decide. My 

 own opinion at present is, that the number we now have do as much good as they 

 do harm, but that they should not be allowed to increase to any great extent. 



The Sparrow is also charged with driving away our native birds. The charge is 

 well founded, only in the case of such birds as were formerly in the habit of building 

 in holes and crevices about our houses, such as the Swallows and the Wrens. In the 

 case of the Wrens the difficulty can easily be got over by placing their nest boxes 

 low down, say about eight feet from the ground ; the Sparrows will not then occupy 

 them. But the Swallow problem is not so easy to solve. The trouble arises from the 

 fact that the Sparrows remain here all through the winter and use the Swallows' 

 nests in that season as roosting places. As spring comes they build in them, and so 

 have possession when the Swallows return from the south. As they then, naturally 

 enough, decline to turn out, the Swallows have to seek elsewhere for a home; the 

 result being that we lose a valuable, purely insectivorous bird and get in the place of 

 it one whose value is questionable. Continually shooting off the Sparrows as they 

 appear seems to be the only remedy, and T think eternal vigilance would be required 

 to make it successful in any place where the Sparrows are well established. 



That Sparrows are rather quarrelsome amongst themselves in the season of love- 

 making is evident to everyone, but so far I have not seen them interfere with any 

 other species whose nesting interests do not conflict with theirs. In my own 



