i8o BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



his good points, if we are to judge him as we 

 find him, without allowing what the Australians 

 and Americans say of him to prejudice our minds. 

 Possibly in those distant countries he may be alto- 

 gether bad, resembling, in this respect, some of 

 the emigrants of our species, who, when they 

 go abroad, leave their whole stock of morality at 

 home. Even with us Miss Ormerod is exceed- 

 ingly bitter against him, and desires nothing less 

 than his complete extirpation; but it is possible 

 that this lady's zeal may not be according to 

 knowledge, that she may not know a sparrow 

 quite so well as she knows a fly. At all events, 

 the ornithologist finds it hard to believe that so 

 bad an insect-catcher is really causing the extinc- 

 tion of any exclusively insectivorous species. On 

 her own very high authority we know that the 

 insect supply is not diminishing, that the Injurious 

 kinds alone are able to inflict an annual loss equal 

 to £10,000,000 on the British farmer. To put 

 aside this controversial matter, the sparrow with 

 all his faults is a pleasant merry little fellow; In 

 many towns he is the sole representative of wild 

 bird life, and is therefore a great deal to us — 

 especially in the metropolis, in which he most 



