160 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
CHAPTER XI. 
THE SPARROW} ITS VIRTUES. 
THE case for the defence—Prévost-Paradol on the Sparrow— 
How the young are fed—33,600 caterpillars in ten weeks— 
Mischievous powers of a caterpillar —The Sparrow per- 
force an insect-hunter during many months of the year— 
St/ones weevils and the Sparrow—The Cabbage Butterfly 
and the Sparrow—The Sparrow in the fruit-garden—The 
Sparrow at Maine and Auxerre—Sparrow verses Martin 
—Martins the usurpers—The Sparrow as a destroyer 
of thatch—Sparrows and buds—Sparrows and their political 
views—The Sparrow in America and New Zealand—<Ac- 
climatization and its dangers—A plausible theory—The 
Sparrow and wild seeds— Summing-up and verdict— 
Domestic life of the Sparrow. 
‘‘’THE Sparrow only lives near the habitations of man. 
It varies its food according to circumstances. Ina 
wood it lives on insects and seeds; ina village it eats 
seeds, grain, grubs of butterflies, &c. In a city it 
lives on all kinds of débris ; but it prefers cockchafers 
and some other insects to all other food.” 
So writes Prévost-Paradol, whose statements, be it 
remembered, are the outcome of long and careful in- 
vestigations, carried on during every month of the 
twelve, and therefore entitled to all attention and 
respect. And very few, excepting those who are 
rabid enemies of the bird, and wilfully blind to aught 
