THE WOOD-PIGEON AND HOUSE-SPARROW. 191 



Meyers, 'would like to see them increase 

 tenfold.' He exterminated them once, but 

 blight of various kinds increased so that he 

 was glad to get them back. And this evidence 

 is borne out by Mr. Harting, who tells us that 

 at Baden a price was put on their heads, and 

 that then the cockchafers increased so that 

 they were reintroduced at some expense.' 

 Under one sparrow's nest 1,400 wing-cases of 

 cockchafers were collected and counted, yet 

 the stomachs of yomig sparrows are constantly 

 full of wheat and peas. Mr. Groome NajDier 

 thinks they do more harm than good. One 

 hundred stomachs of young sparrows were ex- 

 hibited in 1865, and there was not five per 

 cent, which contained insect food. 



Mr. Lewis Fytche thinks him most usefiil, 

 and Mr. Cordeaux that ' the good he does over- 

 balances the evil;' but he takes their nests as 

 they turn out other birds. 



Mr. C. Eussell thinks ' nearly all evidence 

 in favour of sparrows is founded on partial ob- 



