240 Transactions. 



them to clear a field of peas of caterpillars, which, before the 

 birds became numerous, would have destroyed all the peas." 



In 1878, Mr. T. W. Kirk, F.L.S., Government Biologist in New 

 Zealand, read an interesting paper before the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Institute, in which he stated that the balance of a mass 

 of information he had collected was against the sparrow. In 

 1897, in the " Report of the Department of Agriculture," he 

 stated that he had n^ade more extensive investigations, with the 

 result that the evidence against the bird was overwhelming, 

 " and would crush, as with a weight of shame, any less hardened 

 criminal." 



That is the case for and against the sparrow as far as my 

 inquiries have gone. The mass of evidence is entirely against 

 the bird, which stands condemned on the almost unanimous 

 vote of the farming community of the colony. It is proclaimed 

 a public nuisance, and the mitigations of its offence are evidently 

 so slight that they are deemed hardly worth considering. 



Wh-atever the sparrow may do in these times, however, 

 there is no doubt that it did good service to the agriculturist 

 and horticulturist of New Zealand in former days, when the 

 insects were on the war-path and when the people were liable 

 to be eaten out of house and home. A new generation has 

 arisen, and only the sparrow's faults are remembered. We do 

 not know how we would fare if the sparrow was dismissed from 

 the land, and the safest plan seems to be to keep it in check 

 as far as possible. 



The Blackbird. 



The blackbird is a pest of the orchard rather than of the 

 field. It devours all kinds of fruit, from currants and straw- 

 berries to apricots, apples, cherries, and plums. Its wholesale 

 depredations in this respect outweigh much of the good it does 

 by eating insects. Its name is generally Unked with that of the 

 sparrow and the skylark in answer to the question as to whether 

 the introduction of any English birds was a mistake. 



Amongst other things, the blackbird is accused of having 

 been the means of spreading the blackberry throughout the 

 West Oxford (North Canterbury), Mangonui, and other country 

 districts. Mr. J. Speight, of Shirley, near Christchurch, who 

 was a passenger by the " Matoaka " in 1867, and had blackbirds 

 as his shipmates, says that they are almost useless in Canter- 

 bury now, and that they seem to have forgotten the art of break- 

 ing snails' shells in order to get at the snails, a practice in which 

 they display considerable ski'l in England. 



A large majority of those who replied to my circular are dis- 

 tinctly in favour of banishing the blackbird, if that is possible, 



