166 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
“One word as to the period of time when any 
mischief is really done—for such, to some extent, I 
have never denied there really is. I stated that a 
month, or about a month, might be taken as the 
average time of getting in the harvest in any one 
district, and this opinion is confirmed by the follow- 
ing statement made by Mr. Hawley :—‘I have waited 
upon three of our most eminent and enlightened 
farmers in this district for their opinion on this sub- 
ject, and they agree upon one point, that six weeks 
is the very outside (but two of them think a month 
nearer the truth) that sparrows do in any way injure 
the agriculturist.’” 
While engaged in the work of insect slaughter the 
sparrow is generally very industrious, and labours 
away systematically to obtain every possible victim. 
And many of our most destructive insects are among 
its principal victims. I quote, for example, the fol- 
lowing passages from a letter of the Rev. M. C. H. 
Bird, who, although not altogether an advocate of 
the sparrow, yet acknowledges that there is much to 
be said in his favour :— 
“‘T have seen them,” he writes, ‘‘ taking caterpillars 
from cabbages, searching them day after day, and 
spinach beet, too. . . . I have also seen them take 
Garden Whites (butterflies) on the wing.” 
Again, in a subsequent letter, he tells me :—‘ On 
gooseberry trees, later on in the year, I have seen 
them taking the larve of the gooseberry saw-fly re- 
peatedly, and of the currant moth from currant trees, 
and green caterpillars from cabbages, &c.” 
