158 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
It is also brought in evidence against the sparrow— 
and on this point particular emphasis is generally 
laid—that both in New Zealand and America, into 
which countries it has lately been introduced by the 
intervention of man, it has not only increased to a 
very great and wholly unexpected extent, but has 
almost entirely abandoned the work of insect destruc- 
tion for a diet of grain and fruit. And, again, there 
can be no doubt whatever that such is the case. 
Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming tells us that the fifty 
sparrows originally imported into New Zealand have 
multiplied into millions, and that upon one estate 
alone a ton and a half of grapes were devoured, and 
five fig-trees entirely stripped in the course of only 
ten’ days... And Dr... C. Coues tells us much the 
same story of its doings in America. In _ both 
countries, in fact, the bird has done a work the 
very opposite of that for which it was imported, 
and has proved a curse instead of the anticipated 
blessing. 
The foregoing list comprises all the many faults 
and failings of the sparrow, so far as I have been 
able to ascertain them. 
The reader will notice that as yet I have brought 
forward no evidence in favour of the bird, and have 
not attempted to show either that the various losses 
ascribed to its mischievous proceedings may possibly, 
when fully considered, prove less serious than at first 
sight they appear, or that they are counterbalanced 
by services rendered in other ways. This task I re- 
serve for the following chapter, in which I shall take 
