THE POINT A T ISSUE. 3 



shut their eyes to its misdeeds, and will only look at 

 its merits.* 



'There can, I think, be no doubt,' writes the Rev. 

 F. O. Morris, 'but that the harm they may do, even 

 granting it to be considerable, is compensated, and 

 more than compensated, by that which they prevent.' — 

 Brit. Birds., ii., p. 278. 



This appears to be the opinion of several other 

 naturalists ; and, although one fact is worth a peck of 

 theories, their opinions are not to be disregarded. 



THE HABITS OF THE SPARROW. 



The various ways in which sparrows do harm to 

 crops are well known to agriculturists ; but, perhaps, 

 by no one has the sequence of their proceedings in the 

 field been better put than by the Rev. C. A. Johns 

 {Brit, Birds, p. 202). Sometimes they make descents 

 on the standing corn before the grain has attained full size, 

 and near the hedges the busy pilferers are at work, 

 and fly up in a swarm as you approach them ; but 

 when it is quite ripe they do the greatest harm. It is 

 not only what they eat, but what they knock out. 



A gentleman, who is a practical farmer in Nort 

 Lincolnshire — Mr. J. Cordeaux— tells me he has seen 

 acres which had the appearance of being threshed with 

 a flail. Taking this into consideration, the opinion of 

 the Melbourne (Derbyshire) Sparrow Club— that spar- 

 rows destroy a quart of corn apiece during the sum- 

 mer (vide Zoologist, p. 2299)— is probably true. If 30 



* Some people are to be found who will even stand up for the 

 ring-dove or wood-pigeon— a greater pest than the sparrow. 



