Dkummond. — On Introduced Birch. 239 



gulls, blackbirds, pheasants, and hedge-sparrows, poisoned by 

 wheat, have been brought to me." 



Some of the replies give an idea of the intense enmity the 

 sparrow has created for himself in New Zealand. One corre- 

 spondent refers to him as "that bird brigand, the sparrow." 

 A resident of Mataura, in Southland, says that he is a greater 

 nuisance than the rabbit. Another farmer says that the man 

 who first introduced the sparrow should be smitten with all 

 the plagues of Egy]>t ; and another thinks that hanging is the 

 only punishment that wall fit the crime of introducing " this 

 pestiferous little beast, which has done no good to any one,- 

 and much harm to everybody." 



Of the hundreds of correspondeiits who have filled in the 

 circular, there are only six who raise their voices in the sparrow's 

 favour. I give their opinions in full. Mr. G. Wilkinson, 

 Chairman of the North Cape County Council, writing from 

 Mangonui. says : "I feel sure that sparrows do a lot of good, 

 and if their numbers were greatly reduced the country would 

 be overrun with insects again." Mr. W. E. Draper, of Wae- 

 renga, Waikato, looks upon the sparrow as " the best agricul- 

 tural scavenger we have." " It is true," he adds, " that he 

 eats a little, but he does not destroy what he won't eat. When 

 I watch him and see what quantities of dirty slugs he eats I 

 am satisfied that I am not paWng too high a price for the return 

 made. I am also satisfied that a great deal of the damage attri- 

 buted to the sparrow is committed by the lark." Mr. G. M. 

 Thomson, F.L.S., a Dunedin naturalist, says that though the 

 sparrow is very destructive to grain-crops when they are ripening, 

 it eats a number of insects throughout the year, as well as the 

 seeds of weeds. He also states that " it is a common sight to 

 see sparrows chasing moths and other insects on the wing, and 

 lighting down on the roads to strip their wdngs off ; in gardens 

 they destroy germinating seeds, especially peas, disbud goose- 

 berries, and pick the primrose-flowers as they open ; but here 

 again the}- do a lot of good in keeping down insect life." Mr. 

 E. H. Shakespear. curator of the bird sanctuary at Little 

 Barrier Island, says that sparrows are destructive to a certain 

 extent, but in the winter they destroy a good many insects. 

 He doubts if they are as destructive as they are thought to be, 

 and says that probably one characteristic balances the other. 

 Mr. Shury, of Ashburton, states that a pair of sparrows have 

 been observed to feed their young thirty-six times an hour in 

 a fourteen-hour spring and summer day, and he has calculated 

 that they feed their young with 3,400 worms and caterpillars 

 in one week. Mr. H. A. Nevins, writing from Tinui, Castle 

 Point, says : " Sparrows do a great deal of good ; I have known 



