YARRELLS BIRDS. 47 



become an intolerable nuisance.' Much might be said 

 here of other colonies, but the professor's prediction in 

 regard to Australia, at any rate, has been amply 

 verified ; for we read : 



' The " sparrow question " is one of the most practical 

 and perplexing which the Melbourne Government is now 

 striving to solve, but apparently it is beyond its powers. 

 Many of the sufferers have been summoned to give 

 evidence as to the amount of damage done by the 

 sparrows, and the result proves them to be an infinitely 

 worse plague than either blight or caterpillar. One man 

 tells how in ten days they cleared his vineyard of a ton 

 and a half of grapes, and stripped five fig-trees which had 

 been loaded with fruit. Another had lost ^30 worth of 

 fruit from a comparatively small garden. A third had 

 fifteen acres of lucern grass destroyed. A fourth had to 

 sow his peas three times, and each time the sparrows 

 devoured them. A multitude of similar cases are 

 reported.' 



In England the increase in the number of sparrows 

 seems to keep pace with the increase of the population 

 and the number of houses. Wherever a new house or 

 cottage is built, it is no sooner inhabited than it receives 

 its family of sparrows. In some of our colonies, how- 

 ever, and notably in North America, it increases with 

 astonishing and alarming rapidity. The climate, the 

 abundant supply of food, and other causes favour their 

 increase. 



Professor Newton says, very truly, they ' will of course 

 oust some of the indigenous species.' This they have 

 done in America. *In place of many sweet songsters 

 which used to grace and enliven our streets,' says Dr. 



