the Value of Birds to Man. 99 



length the fields became a thickly-packed growth of prickly 

 plants, which nothing could face. 



The Sparrows took to eating the seed. In tens of 

 thousands they fed on it, giving it the preference of all 

 other hard food, and the weed was conquered. 



To-day, in New Zealand, the Sparrow is looked upon 

 as an impudent thief, without a redeeming feature in its 

 character. 



No one, of course, can say what would happen if the 

 Sparrow was dismissed from New Zealand, but it is as 

 certain as anything in this world can be that the Dominion 

 would be again overrun with caterpillars and thistles. 



As it is, the good the Sparrows do must far outweigh 

 the mischief which is laid to their charge. This state- 

 ment receives the amplest confirmation in the bountiful 

 harvests with which New Zealand is blessed. Never 

 were the Sparrows more numerous, never the complaints 

 against them more bitter; yet the yield of grain is without 

 precedent. 



The growling of the New Zealand farmer at the Sparrow, 

 again, justifies Virgil's complaint of the " miserly husband- 

 man." Miserly, indeed, and blind. Not a grain will he 

 give the bird which has laboured unceasingly for eleven 

 long months to free the soil from grubs ; but whole fields of 

 wheat to the caterpillar ! 



In Australia a plague of grasshoppers periodically visits 

 the paddocks to devour the crops. But the ruin they would 

 otherwise bring on the farmer is checked by large flocks of 

 Glossy Ibises, Spoonbills, Cranes, and other native birds. It 

 has been computed by an eminent naturalist that a flock of 

 200,000 of these saviours will consume in a single day 

 25 tons of grasshop[)ers. 



It is for this reason that the people of the Commonwealth 

 view with such grave apprehension the continual slaughter 

 of native birds, for their loss is rendering the country ever 

 more prono to the plague of grasshoppers. 



