96 



CHAPTER IV. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



In Europe the sparrow has been placed by eminent 

 and well-qualified investigators foremost in the rank of 

 useful birds. When it has been exterminated, it has 

 been "necessary to re-establish and foster it at infinite 

 trouble and expense. Over there it constitutes part and 

 parcel of the natural economy of animal life ; it has its 

 place, and fills it. 



It must not be vainly supposed that it is an unmixed 

 good. Its destruction of the blossoms and fruits of trees, 

 the tender flowers of herbaceous plants, and the ripened 

 grain in rural districts, are facts too well known to be 

 discredited, or passed silently by. Few writers upon 

 the habits of this species seek to conceal its faults. But 

 the destruction which it commits, although on a sin- 

 gularly grand scale, is nevertheless small, according to 

 the concurrent testimony of reliable authorities, when 

 contrasted with the immense benefits which accrue to 

 agriculturists and fruit-growers in the destruction of 

 millions of noxious insects in their various stages of 

 development. 



Judging from the rapid multiplication of the species, 

 which, so far as I know, is unsurpassed by that of 

 any other species of the Fringillidm, it might be sup- 

 posed that the supply of insect food would be largely 

 disproportionate to the excessive demand, and, conse- 



