92 FKINGILLID.E. 



ornithologist's eyes ; but here it is not intended to go into 

 the vexed question of the comparative profit or loss of 

 his existence, as regards the gardener and agriculturist. 

 Very much is to be said on each side, and the bird's best 

 friends will do wisely by eschewing any violent partizanship 

 until far more careful observations — especially by disin- 

 terested and unprejudiced persons — have been made. It 

 may be freely admitted that in many instances the damage 

 done to pease and ripening grain is incalculable ; but equally 

 incalculable is the service as often performed by the destruc- 

 tion of insect-pests. Not only are the young, during the 

 earlier part of the breeding- season, mainly fed on destruc- 

 tive caterpillars, but the parents, for their own sustenance 

 then capture, even on the wing, a large number of noxious 

 insects in their perfect stage*. Thus it is still a question 

 whether the benefit conferred is not an equivalent for the 

 corn and seeds stolen during the rest of the year, and it 

 must be always borne in mind that a very large portion of 

 the food of this and other species of granivorous birds is 

 such as could never be turned to any useful end. What, 

 however, are called " Sparrow Clubs " for the indiscriminate 

 destruction of this and other small birds deserve neverthe- 

 less to be regarded with the utmost abhorrence. 



The great attachment of the parents to their young has 

 been frequently noticed. Prof. Bell, in 1824, stated (Zool. 

 Journ. i. p. 10, note) that a pair of Sparrows, which had 

 built in a thatched roof at Poole, were seem to continue 

 their regular visits to the nest long after the time when the 

 young usually take flight. This went on for some months, 

 till in the winter, a gentleman who had all along observed 

 them, determined on investigating the cause. Mounting a 

 ladder, he found one of the young detained a prisoner by a 

 piece of string or worsted, which formed part of the nest, 

 having become accidentally twisted round its leg. Being thus 

 unable to procure its own sustenance, it had been fed by the 

 continued exertions of its parents. A parallel instance had 



* raiticukirly PhyUopcrtha. korti cola — the chovy, as it is called in East 

 Anglia, where in some seasons it swarms and is most mischievous. 



