THE HOUSE SPARROW. 157 



doubt that the Sparrow question is now a very important 

 one, and that it is becoming year by year more so ; that is, 

 if a tithe of what is said and written about it at farmers' 

 clubs and in the agricultural newspapers be true." He has 

 been so good as to give a table showing the results, during 

 each month of the year, of 694 dissections of House Spar- 

 rows' crops, made by various hands, in various places ; adding 

 that to give a summary of the table in a few words it may 

 be said that about 75 per cent, of an adult Sparrow's food 

 during its life, is corn of some kind, and that the remaining 

 25 per cent, may be roughly divided as follows : — Seeds of 

 weeds, 10 per cent. ; green peas, 4 per cent. ; beetles, 3 per 

 cent. ; caterpillars, 2 per cent. ; insects which fly, 1 per 

 cent. ; other things, 5 per cent. He likewise states that in 

 young Sparrows, up to the age of sixteen days, not more 

 than 40 per cent, is corn, while about 40 per cent, consists 

 of caterpillars, and 10 per cent, of small beetles.^ Notwith- 

 standing the various opinions which have been held as to 

 the usefulness, or otherwise, of the House Sparrow to the 

 farmer, we must now accept the results of the 694 dissec- 

 tions above mentioned, as conclusive evidence on the subject, 

 for, as our national poet says — 



Facts are chiels which winna cling, 

 And downa be disputed. 



The House Sparrow often works a considerable amount of 

 mischief in our gardens by destroying the blooms of two of 

 our most beautiful spring flowers — crocuses and primroses ; 

 and it also eats young peas when sprouting through the 

 ground, and green peas from the pod. Every year in spring 

 the primroses in my garden are completely destroyed by 

 these birds nipping through the blooms when in full 

 beauty, at the part where the seed-pod forms, and thus it 



1 The House Sparrow, by J. H. Gurney, jun., p. 17. 



