14 



the Sparrow; they took the greatest care of him; he increased 

 and multiplied veiy rapidly; he has followed American civilization 

 almost over its footsteps, for he is now to be found in those cities 

 that none but Americans could call into existence, even to the 

 Far West. He was imported in the first instance without (I 

 venture to think) sufficient knowledge of his habits. He was 

 expected to devour, at all seasons, all kinds of noxious insects, 

 and, as a most unpardonable sin, it is now recorded that he 

 refuses to nourish himself even upon Colorado Beetles and Eocky- 

 mountain Locusts. He is accused of being noisy and pugnacious 

 to the extent of driving away all native birds irom the locahties 

 in which he has established himself. As to his self-assertion and 

 pugnacity, few will probably question these statements; yet, may 

 it not be just possible that the advance of civilization, so dis- 

 tinctly favourable for the SpaiTOw, may have had something to 

 do mth the disappearance of native birds, which, naturally, can 

 accommodate themselves to those changed conditions only by a 

 modification of their original habits? He is accused of not 

 devom-ing those noxious insects he was exjiected to attack; still, 

 may it not be possible there is something protective in the nature 

 of those insects, which secm-es them against the attacks of all 

 birds? It has been very truly, I think, said of the Sparrow in 

 this country, that it is still a question whether the benefit con- 

 ferred (during the breeding season) is not an equivalent for the 

 corn and seeds stolen during the rest of the year, and that any 

 means devised for its indiscriminate destruction must be regarded 

 with the utmost abhorrence. (See Yarrell's " British Birds," 4th 

 edition, Yol. ii., p. 92.) If the advantages of living in a free 

 country have not so far intensified, in America, the ultra-x-adical 

 proclivities of our Sparrow, as to have eliminated fi-om his nature 

 those certainly good quahties he possesses here, I venture to pre- 

 dict our generous kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic will 

 end by tolerating him, and, probably, by an inward cou\iction 

 that the absence of our Sparrow would leave with them, as with 

 us, a blank impossible to fiU up. 



Gentlemen, it remains for me to thank you heartily for the 

 courtesy and forbearance you have exercised towai'ds me 

 during the two years in which I have fillc 1 this Chair. I have 

 been deeply sensible that I have been wimting in one very im- 



