THE CANADIAN IIORTICCLTCRIST. 



but few weeds or suckers will grow. 

 The most popular Black Cap at the 

 pi'esent time is the Gregg. It is very 

 late. It, with some one of the early 

 sorts, of which there are several now 

 offered by responsible dealere, will give 

 all that is desired in black varieties. 

 Turner and Cuthbert are the two best 

 red varieties yet fully tested and will 

 give a succession of fruit from early to 

 the very latest. 



W. H. HiLBORN. 



Arkona, Jan. 22nd, 1883. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



I regret to see that at the meeting of 

 the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association, 

 Mr. W. E. "Wellington's advei-se reso- 

 lution regarding the English Span'ow 

 was passed. 



Having had a very long acquaintance 

 with the bird, and having observed it 

 closely in England, as well as in other 

 countries, my conclusion is most decid- 

 edly, completely in its favour ; in fact, 

 I do Jiot know of any small bird equally 

 useful as a destroyer of moths, butter- 

 flies and catei"pillars. Times without 

 number have I watched the sparrow in 

 the early morning carefully searching 

 crevices and chinks in buildings for 

 moths ; and numbers have I seen turned 

 out of their hiding places and captured 

 by the little bird. So fond of moths is 

 the sparrow that I have even seen it 

 abstract dry, dead ones in the winter 

 time and eat them. Many and many 

 a time have I seen the white cabbage 

 butterfly (Fieris rapce) hotly chased for 

 a hundred yards or more by the sparrow, 

 which seldom failed in making a cap- 

 ture, although the zig-zag, unsteady 

 flight of the insect frequently sorely 

 puzzled the sparrow. I have, too, often 

 seen the sparrows collecting caterpillars 

 and flying off" with them to their nests; 

 and anyone who has closely studied the 



habits of the sparrow in England, 

 knows to what a great extent cater- 

 pillars form the food of the young. It 

 should be borne in mind that the young 

 of the Fringillida3 are not fed on hard 

 seed, nor on fruit, but principally on 

 insect food. It is principally as a 

 destroyer of moths that I admire the 

 sparrow. To some butterflies it is 

 partial, but any modei'ately sized moth 

 it will greedily seize ; and a more clever 

 searcher for moths in their day time 

 places of concealment it would be diffi- 

 cult to imagine. On this account, if 

 no other, the sparrow should be care- 

 fully protected. It is the very best 

 friend the gardener and the fruit grower 

 could have, but unfortunately in this 

 country its habits seem to differ from 

 those of the old country, for there it is 

 freely distributed over every farm in 

 the land, while here it will not leave the 

 shelter of the towns and villages. My 

 farm is only about a mile and a half 

 from Milton, where there are a number 

 of sparrows, but I have not seen a 

 sparrow on my place yet. 



The sparrow will take its small share 

 of grain and fruit, but this is amply 

 paid for by the insects destroyed by 

 this most useful bird. I need not say 

 more in favor of the sparrow than that 

 I most surely know it, from my own 

 careful observation, to be a great de- 

 stroyer of injurious insects, and it 

 would be indeed a pity and folly to 

 exterminate it, now that it has been 

 introduced to the country. I only 

 wish it were generally spread as at 

 home, and I am sure it is most welcome 

 to the run of my farm and orchards. 

 I don't think any reliable conclusion 

 will be come to by the proposed com- 

 mittee on the little bird, and if they 

 come to an opposite conclusion to the 

 statements of the three leading British 

 naturalists whom I shall now quote, I 

 shall be sorry for the committee as 

 well as the sparrow. 



