390 THE HOUSE-SPARROW. 



gardener told me he pulled the nest down from the same spot 

 and broke the eggs on the 9th, so this was quick work, to build 

 a house and begin to replenish it with embryo young in four 

 days. If one of the old birds is shot, the other soon finds 

 a mate, and the breeding goes on. White, of Selborne, tested 

 this ; he says — " When sparrows deprive my martins of their 

 nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or 

 hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times." 

 Many birds do the same, which proves there are always plenty 

 of single unmarried ones to select from in the field of nature. 

 Like the rook, do sparrows more harm than good ? In the 

 Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture Mr Gurney read a paper — 

 " Are sparrows so destructive as to be destroyed, considering 

 the caterpillars they eat V He said : — 



" A large farmer in Chelsea stated that sparrows, assisted by other small 

 birds, had done the country £770,094- worth of damage in twelve months. 

 If this were true, it might be doubted if any consumption of caterpillars 

 could make amends, as it is only the young which are fed with them." 



Having shown what extraordinary ravages caterpillars made, 

 he said : — 



" Sparrows had been proved to eat the caterpillar of the destructive 

 gamma moth as well as the young fed with it." 



After giving a list of the insects destroyed by sparrows, he 

 said :— 



" They also did a great deal of good by eating the seeds of the knot-grass, 

 chickweed, and corn-bind weed ; also the buttercup, ribwort, plantain, dock, 

 mouse-ear, and wild spinach. At the same time they occasionally ate 

 turnip seed, hay, clover, and trefoil seed. He had seen from 100 to 150 

 little seeds in the crop of one sparrow, and as many as 321 chickweeds were 

 found in one — showing their great capacity." 



He admitted the damage done by sparrows to farmers, but, he 

 said : — 



"The fairest way to judge the damage done xoas by dissecting the bird. 

 About 75 per cent, of an adult sparroid's food was corn— chiefly barley and 

 wheat — and some oats, the remaining 25 per cent, being seeds 10 per cent., 

 green peas 4-, small beetles 3, caterpillars 2, flying insects 1, the other 5 per 

 cent, being bread and other things ; while in yonng sparrows, up to 16 days, 

 not more than forty per cent, was corn, whilst about 4-0 per cent, consisted 

 of caterpillars, and 10 per cent, of small black beetles." 



This, too, at an important time of the year to check insect 

 pests. He observed that — 



"In ordinary circumstances sparrows did more harm than good, but it 

 was counterbalanced by their destruction of noxious insects and seeds ; and, 



