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easily answered. It seems to me that the advent of the people of 

 Europe on this continent is almost a complete parallel to that of the 

 sparrows. When they first came to this country they were heartily 

 welcomed by the then occupiers of the land, hut it was not long before 

 the avarice, greed and cruelty of the strangers caused them to change 

 their minds, and the word went forth among the dusky nations that the 

 white man must go. We all know where he is now to be found, but 

 where is the red man 1 So it may be with the sparrow. It came, or 

 rather was brought, as the welcome ally of the husbandman. It has 

 outlived the welcome, but it is still here in ever increasing numbers, 

 and, like its human prototype, it has probably come to stay. 



One of England's greatest men in the world of science, but recently 

 deceased, makes the statement that the power of adaptation to sur- 

 roundings, means the survival and extension of both plants and animals 

 so conditioned. The proofs of the truth of this statement are abundantly 

 manifest, and perhaps no more striking instance can be given than the 

 rapid increase and spread of the House Sparrow in this country. Tt 

 appears to be possessed of the power of accommodating itself to climatic 

 conditions in a higher degree than most of our native birds, and the 

 varied range of food on which it can subsist and thrive fits it in an 

 eminent degree to become a citizen of the world. 



The sparrow, in providing for the rearing of its young, takes great 

 precautions in the way of securing dry and warm quarters for them ; 

 from the care exercised in this respect there are reasons for believing 

 that an unusually large proportion of their eggs produce young. It 

 may also account in some manner for their great fecundity. The drain 

 on the system incident to maternity being reduced to a minimum on 

 account of their nests being always thickly lined with feathers and non- 

 conducting materials, so that the time required to keep the eggs 

 constantly warm during the period of incubation, must be shorter than 

 it would be when the construction of the nest was of a different charac- 

 ter. The fact that sparrows have from three to six broods in a season, 

 varying from five to seven in each brood, while very few of our native 

 birds have more than two broods, varying from four to seven in each, 

 would confirm the belief that the drain on the vitality of the mother 

 sparrow is less than it is with many of our native birds. Another 



