26 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



so much damage was done to crops from the extraordi- 

 nary increase of caterpillars, resulting from the conse- 

 quent destruction of small birds, that a law was passed 

 prohibiting any further sacrifice of these creatures. 



Macgillivray, in his History of British Birds, both In- 

 digenous and Migratory, which was published in 1837, 

 after referring to its devastation upon wheat, which is 

 very perceptible in localities not remote from towns, as 

 evidenced by the numerous earless stalks which are 

 noticeable, and its fondness for the seeds of Sinajpis ar- 

 V( nsis, charlock, Raphanus Raphanistum, chickweeds and 

 mouse ears, Stellaria Cerastium, and field and garden 

 peas, says, "In summer it subsists partly on insects of 

 various kinds, which also afford the chief nourishment 

 of its young." 



Yarrell, writing in 1843, says, "The young are fed for 

 a time with soft fruits, young vegetables, and insects, 

 particularly caterpillars, and so great is the number of 

 these that are consumed by the parent birds, and their 

 successive broods of young, that it is a question whether 

 the benefit thus performed is not a fair equivalent for 

 the grain and seeds required at other seasons of the year." 



William Thompson, Esq., bears testimony in his Natu- 

 ral History of Ireland, which was published in 1849, to 

 the good which these birds accomplish in the destruction 

 of the large white garden butterfly (Pontia brassic<z\ 

 whose caterpillars are so injurious. 



Dr. Brewer, in Forest and Stream, for June, 1877, 

 says, " Ever since the commission, appointed by Louis 

 Napoleon, at the head of which was that eminent savan, 

 Florent Prevost, reported that the sparrow was par emi- 

 nence the most useful to agriculture of all the birds of 

 Europe, the sparrow has been protected b} T law, and the 



