110 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
the sparrow is an unmixed good, but the balance is so 
largely in his favour, that he ought to be welcome to take 
a little fruit or corn as wages which he has fairly earned. 
In the face of facts like these, who will be inclined to 
hold up the sparrow and our other tiny feathered friends 
as hostile to the farmer, and what in this enlightened 
nineteenth century are we to think of the wtelligence 
which could perpetrate such acts as the following letter 
records, and which I copy from the Times of December 
12, 1862 2— 
“Sparrow Murper.—I think the following ane 
_ of the ‘wise men’ of Crawley ought to be shown to the 
world in your widespread journal ; it speaks for itself, 
and requires no comment on my part, It is taken from 
a country paper of this week :—‘ CRAWLEY SPARROW 
CLtus —The annual dinner took place at the George 
Inn, on Wednesday last. The first prize was awarded 
to Mr. J. Redford, Worth, having destroyed within the 
year 1467. Mr. Heaysman took the second, with 1448 
destroyed; Mr. Stone third, with 982 affixed. Total 
destroyed, 11,944; old birds, 8663; young ditto, 722 
egos, 2559.—Yours obediently, A REAL FRIEND TO THE 
FAaRMER.—December 10, 1862.” 
I do not know where Crawley is, but I feel ashamed 
of the profound ignorance and inhumanity of its in- 
habitants, and especially of the three individuals who 
carried off the prizes in their sparrow club. 
The nest of the sparrow is a loose, careless structure, 
and it is amazing to see in some cases the quantity of 
materials of which it is composed without any apparent 
necessity for such an accumulation. The mouth of a 
cast iron pipe, about six inches in diameter, proceeding 
from a stove in a laundry attached to my father’s house, 
