86 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



month in the year, as well as the food of young 

 Sparrows to the time of leaving the nest, and thus 

 summarises the result : — 



" 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 

 per cent. ; green peas, 4 per cent. ; beetles, 3 per cent. ; cater- 

 pillars, 2 per cent. ; insects which fly, 1 per cent. ; other things, 

 5 per cent. In young Sparrows not more than 40 per cent, is 

 corn; while about 40 per cent, consists of caterpillars, and 10 

 per cent, of small beetles. . . . Sparrows should be killed for 

 dissection in the afternoon. ... If caught at night, they have 

 in a great measure digested their food." 



Colonel Russell, of Romford, Essex, giving the 

 results of his examination of a large number of 

 Sparrows shot by him during a period of fifteen 

 years, reports as follows : — 



"The food in the old ones was almost all corn during the 

 whole year; green peas were also found in them in summer; 

 and in May and June, when corn is scarce, a few wild seeds, 

 chiefly of grass. No insect has been found by me in a Sparrow 

 between September and March. I have not often found one at any 

 season (particularly between June and March) in a Sparrow old 

 enough to feed itself, and have very seldom found any number of 

 insects in one, even when corn could scarcely be got. 



" Fifty old Sparrows, and Sparrows which could feed them- 

 selves, were killed one summer about my buildings and garden 

 with food in their crops. This food, carefully examined (as in 

 all cases, with a lens), was found to be corn, milky, green, and 

 ripe ; and sometimes green peas from my garden. Only two 

 small insects were found in the whole number. The food in 

 them has been much the same every year. 



" On the whole, the deduction from the food-test, during 

 fifteen years, seems to be that Sparrows are useless, and that 

 the insects which would be given to their young by them, if they 

 were allowed to live in numbers, would be so much food taken 



