THE SPARROW 5 FES VIRTUES. 16% 
that may tell in its favour, can deny that the sparrow 
devours a considerable number of insects in the 
course of the year. 
Especially is this the case during the breeding- 
season, at which time a pair of sparrows have been 
found to bring to the nest an average of forty cater- 
pillars in each hour to serve as food for the hungry 
young. Now, twelve hours is by no means a long 
working day for the sparrow, which, although not 
one of the earliest risers among the members of the 
feathered race, is yet on the wing very soon after sun- 
rise, and steadily carries on its labours until dusk. 
But, granting that it works for twelve hours only in 
the day, we yet have a total of four hundred and 
eighty caterpillars killed fer dem by the one pair of 
birds, or three thousand three hundred and sixty in 
the course of the week, irrespective of those which 
the parent birds themselves appropriate for private 
consumption. 
Again, the sparrow brings up two broods at least 
of young during the spring, and the breeding season 
may be taken to average ten weeks in all. Carrying 
on the calculation, therefore, we have a grand total 
of thirty-three thousand six hundred caterpillars killed 
for each nest during those ten weeks. 
Now let us suppose, for purposes of argument, that 
there are fifty pairs of sparrows, upon an average, to 
each square mile of arable land,—an estimate cer- 
tainly far below the mark,—omitting all consideration 
of the extensive area of pasture and garden ground 
which also profits by the services of the bird in the 
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