32 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



One of the first to be introduced was the sparrow, that 

 unlovely, songless, and impudent vagabond of a bird, 

 denounced by Miss E. A. Ormerod, condemned by the English 

 Board of Agriculture, reviled in America, and outlawed by 

 the Parliament of New Zealand, which called in its help in the 

 time of need. A price is now placed on the sparrow's head, 

 and poisons and traps are now laid for it, the farmers, the 

 municipal authorities, and the General Government uniting in 

 the crusade. There is no doubt that it commits great 

 depredations on the grain crops, and that it increases 

 alarmingly. But it must not be forgotten that this rapid 

 increase is one of the bird's recommendations for the mission 

 it was introduced to carry out. It certainly checked the 

 increase of the insects. Without the sparrow, or some other 

 bird ecjually common, the dominion would be over-run with the 

 insects again, and life would be insupportable. No exception 

 is taken to the means of destruction now adopted, as they 

 merely lessen the numbers of the sparrows. But it cannot be 

 admitted that the introduction of this bird was one of the 

 mistakes in acclimatisation. Those who urge that the sparrow 

 ought to be banished should name a substitute. Birds 

 generally eat the food they can obtain with the least trouble. 

 Although soft-billed birds cannot eat seed, hard-billed members 

 of the finch family, to which the sparrow belongs, eat insects 

 as well as seeds. Besides this, the seeds they eat are for the 

 most part those of weeds ; and they destroy the seeds of the 

 weeds all the year round, while it is only at certain seasons 

 that they have opportunities for attacking the crops. No one 

 denies that the seed-eating birds do a great deal of harm as 

 well as good. Before they are condemned altogether, 

 however, we should consider whether it is not better to suffer 

 the ills we have, and mitigate them as much as possible, rather 

 than revert to others with which Ave might not be able to 

 cope. 



These statements are made in the face of the almost 

 unanimous condemnation of the sparrow by the farmer of New 

 Zealand. In 1906 a vote of the farmers was taken by means 



