THE ‘SPARROW 35 ITS VICES. 155 
I freely acknowledge, with regret that such shouid 
be the case. Assoon as the corn begins to ripen 
the bird wends its way to the fields, and there strips 
ear after ear of its contents in order to satisfy its 
appetite. The sheaves, as they stand in the fields, 
it also lays under contribution, and until the corn 
is fairly stacked it is almost equally mischievous, 
seizing the stems one by one, and stripping them 
as before. And the mischief thus wrought by a 
single bird is sometimes very great. 
A correspondent of the Zoologzst states that upon 
one occasion he took one hundred and eighty grains 
of wheat from the crops of five sparrows, or an 
average of thirty-six to each individual specimen ; and 
this is by no means an unusual allowance when the 
bird is left in undisturbed possession of a field. 
Most corn-growers, no doubt, could tell a similar 
tale. Mr. Prior-Johnson, for instance, writes to me :— 
‘‘T had nearly half an acre of barley spoilt by these 
lazy birds just as the grain was plumping up. They 
are so bold that they care not for the report of a gun 
more than to go a little further in the field and carry 
on their mischief. They spoil twice as much as they 
actually consume by settling upon the ear and bend- 
ing or knuckling down the straw, which stops the flow 
of sap.” 
In late autumn, when wheat is sown, the sparrow is 
again to the fore, picking up the grains as they lie halt 
exposed after the drill has passed over the ground, 
and before the harrow has followed it. So far as I 
can ascertain, however, the bird never digs for the 
