ON THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 103 
House Sparrow. Now, we all know that House Sparrows have 
been generally considered as embodying in their small persons 
all that is mischievous and destructive; and this is no doubt 
. partly owing to the impudent conduct of the bird, and his great 
familiarity with man, and the abodes of man. He is always 
_ hopping about and chirping, making himself perfectly at home, 
_ whether in the farm yard, or in the dingy streets of London. 
His colour is altered by the atmosphere of the metropolis, but he 
is just the same chirping, cheeky creature everywhere. Can the 
Sparrow do any good? It seems, indeed, presumptuous, weighing 
_ the prejudices that have been instilled into our minds from our 
earliest youth, to say he can: but true it is, and it can easily be 
proved. People are so apt to look just beyond their own noses ; 
and our gardener, because he sees a few peas pulled up, or seeds 
eaten, condemns the poor birds at once and destroys them ruth- 
lessly. But, let him look beyond ; let him watch the Sparrow all 
the year round, let him see him in the early morn pecking away 
_ at the insects on the grass, or devouring the grubs of the goose- 
berry fly, or swallowing the wireworm ; let him only reflect on the 
~ enormous number of insects he must destroy in the course of the 
year, not only for his support, but to maintain his young ravenous 
brood. Let him examine the crop of a dead bird; let him do 
all this and even more, and then he must come to the conclusion 
that, of all the societies organised on the basis of ignorance and 
stupidity, that institution called a Sparrow Club is alike the 
most wicked and insensate, and calculated to effect results 
the very reverse of what is intended. In a township near 
Liverpool, great complaints were made of the small birds. 
Dead birds and eggs were liberally paid for; thousands of 
the latter were destroyed, the Sparrows were pretty nearly exter- 
inated, and a plague of grubs and caterpillars was the result. 
A correspondent of the Rev. J. G. Wood writes that he found in 
__ the crop of a Sparrow that was shot as it was coming from his 
_ fruit trees, 20 green caterpillars and a number of aphides. In- 
_Stances can be multiplied. In the Meld newspaper of a late 
date it is recorded by a correspondent at Melbourne, in Victoria, 
that the grounds of the Acclimatisation Society were ridded of a 
