BY A FRIEND OF THE FARMERS. 35 



thought the country fortunate in the absence of the 

 vermin. It is creditable to the 'cuteness of Americans 

 and colonists to have found out the sparrows so quickly, 

 while here people never seem tired of writing nonsense 

 about the benefits conferred onus by ' sparrows and other 

 small birds.' Where sparrows, however, have recently 

 been introduced, people are much better able than we are 

 here to judge them justly, because they can remember how 

 things were before the pests were brought there, while 

 here, where they have abounded for ages, when people 

 say (just as they would in the new countries, had sparrows 

 always been there) that we could not live without 

 sparrows, they cannot be contradicted with the same 

 certainty, because we have no experience of what would 

 happen in their absence. On a small scale I have obtained 

 an advantage like that of the Americans and colonists ; 

 it is very desirable that the same experiment should be 

 tried on a large scale, by killing out all the sparrows for 

 some years, not only in gardens, but throughout a large 

 district — the less other birds were killed the better the 

 experiment. In this way only can the sparrow question 

 in this country be settled beyond all dispute. 



On the whole, taking together the results of the intro- 

 duction of sparrows into' new countries, those of my 

 experiment of banishing them, and of my examination of 

 their food and habits, it is my decided opinion that the 

 entire absence of sparrows from this country would be a 

 great benefit to all, especially to farmers and gardeners. 



Even if the harm done by the sparrow were balanced 

 by good done in destroying insects and weed seeds which 

 would not be taken by other birds, his banishment of the 

 martin would condemn him, for the martin is no doubt a 

 far more useful bird. For about six months in the year 



^—2 



