48 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees ; the wholesale de- 

 struction of the blossoms of the apple, pear, and cherry, 

 and the fruits of the same ; the wanton devastations 

 which are committed upon the vines when the grapes 

 are mellowing, are powerful incentives for those who 

 have suffered from their ravages to urge the authorities 

 to colonize and send them back to England where the 

 peasantry are paid for potting them into sparrow pies. 

 They are always feeding, but unlike most species, grow 

 corpulent upon what they pilfer, and thus set the un- 

 wholesome example of consuming what they do not 

 earn. 



The food of this species is both vegetal and animal 

 in character, but chiefly the former. Latterly, fewer 

 insects are destroyed than formerly. This is readily 

 accounted for. JS"ow, in many of our large towns and 

 cities, these birds are so \vell fed and pampered that they 

 are either too lazy to hunt caterpillars, or else the pres- 

 ence of better and more nutritious food has created in 

 them a disgust, or rather disrelish, for insect-diet. In 

 rural localities, the abundance of plant-life in divers 

 forms constitutes a rich field for the display of their 

 granivorous and frugivorous propensities. 



It is ghastly rubbish to pretend, as a special few seem 

 to do, that the ridding of our trees of caterpillars and 

 hemiptera can be intrusted to the sparrows. Almost 

 any bird, from an ostrich to a humming-bird, may or 

 does eat, insects. This diet is not restricted to the 

 technically designated insectivorous birds. In the 

 general scheme of nature, insects and birds are natural 

 complements, the one balancing the other. Sparrows 

 certainly do not come under this category. They are a 

 conirostral and granivorous species, and take to insect 



