THE SPABROW IN EUROPE. 25 



Notwithstanding the injuries which are perpetrated 

 upon crops and blossoms, which scarcely a writer will 

 deny, does the good which these birds accomplish in the 

 destruction of injurious insects amply compensate for 

 the losses sustained ? Let us see what evidence can he 

 produced in justification of the sparrow. 



Bewick remarks, as early as 1805, "In the destruction 

 of caterpillars they are eminently serviceable to vegeta- 

 tion, and in this respect alone, there is reason to suppose, 

 sufficiently repay the destruction they may make in the 

 produce of the garden or the field." 



Selby, who writes in 1833, says, " This bird feeds upon 

 all kinds of grain and seeds, and, in the summer, destroys 

 vast numbers of larvae, moths, and butterflies, with which 

 its young are principally fed ; thus making ample com- 

 pensation for the havoc it commits in the ripening fields 

 of corn." 



Mudie, in 1834, after briefly alluding to the destructive 

 habits of the sparrow, affirms, "Upon the whole, they 

 do much more good by the numbers of insects and cater- 

 pillars which they destroy. It is the house fly, as well 

 as the thatch, and the eaves and holes in the roof, that 

 bring them so much about dwellings ; and in the con- 

 sumption of these, as well as of crumbs and other refuse, 

 they are most notable and indefatigable scavengers. 

 But for them, the house flies would, in some situations, 

 multiply to such an extent as to be intolerable; and were 

 they not so incessant in their destruction of those pro- 

 lific pests, the cabbage butterflies, it is doubtful whether 

 one plant of the tribe could be reared in the market 

 gardens." 



The same writer asserts that, in France, in 1841, in 

 the fine district of Burgundy, situated south of Auxerre, 

 3 



