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vegetable substance and insects in about equal proportion, and that the Sparrow, 

 having attached itself to the haunts of man, usually obtains its vegetable food 

 from the plants and seeds ciiltivati'd by men for their own use. I have read 

 many reports of so called ohsciA .is, who have stated that the House Sparrow 

 never eats insects of any kind, tliat it drives away our native birds, and that it 

 is altogether an unmitigated nuisance. Sweeping assertions of this kind are only 

 conclusive evidence that the so-called observer cannot ob.serve. No one with 

 ordinary perceptive faculties can walk through our public parks, or along one of 

 our streets where there are trees and grass in the summer time, without seeing 

 some Sparrows industriously hunting for insects with which to feed their young, 

 and should anyone have a sparrow's nest under his verandah or about his house 

 ill such a position that some of the food brought by the parent birds to their 

 young will fall where it can be seen, the proof that they do eat insects, and in 

 large ijuantities too, will be very clear. The old birds also eat insects at this 

 season, varying their diet with such undigested grain as they may find in horse 

 <lroppings, and with bread crumbs and such like refuse from houses. 



Sparrows, like the majority of birds, will not eat liaii y caterpillars, but I 

 have seen them eat the spiny larvae of Vanessa mitiojia. which is one of our 

 ^hade tree pests that few birds will touch. Besides this I have seen them take 

 moths of almost any kind, including the large Cecropia and Luna iiiotlis and the 

 Tussock moth (both the winged male and the wingless female), beetles of many 

 kinds, even such large species as the aquatic Dyfiscus, wliich they hnd on the 

 sidewalks beneath the electric lights to which the beetles are attracted at night, 

 the green cabbage worm (the larvae of the cabbage butterfly) — of these they eat 

 great numbers. They also hunt about fences, and take the pupa of this same 

 butterfly. The cun-ant worms and the mature insects are also taken in large 

 numbers, as are also grasshoppers, and both the black and gi-een aphides that 

 occur on apple trees and rose bushes are eaten greedily. On one occasion a flock 

 of Sparrows completely cleaned off the green aphis from some rose bushes near 

 iny windows. It took them several days to finish their work, but they did it 

 elfectually in the end. 



About harvest time the Sparrows show their grain-eaten proclivities, They 

 then gather into large flocks, and, leaving the town where they were bred, visit 

 the surrounding country and make serimis laids upon the wheat and oats, and 

 jIo more damage while the grain is stamlini; liy lieating it out than by eating it. 

 It is in early spring, however, that tlie worst trait in the sparrow's character 

 becomes apparent. Vegetation awakens after the long winter's sleep; the trees 

 put foi-th their buds, and seedlines l.reak through the soil. The Sparrow, pro- 

 bably needing an alterative after the liartl fare of the winter, attacks all these ; 

 notliing green comes amiss to him, and then the gardener, wrathful at the loss of 

 prospective fruit, vegetables and flowers, forgets the good qualities the bird has, 

 and would have the whole tribe exterminated. Whether or not he would be the 

 gainer by this is somewhat difficult to decide. My own opinion at present is, 

 that the number we now have do as much good as they do harm, but that thev 

 sliould not be allowed to increase to any great extent. 



The Sparrow is also charged with driving away our native birds. This 

 charge is well founded only in the case of such birds as were formerly in the 

 habit of building in holes and crevices about our houses, such as the Swallows 

 and the Wrens. In the case of the Wrens the difficulty can easily be got over by 

 placing their nest boxes low down, say about eight feet from the ground ; the 

 Sparrows will not then occupy them. But the Swallow problem is not so easy 

 to solve. The trouble arises from the fact that the Sparrows remain here all 



