74 



CHAPTER III. 



EVIDENCE, BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE, OF THE 

 SPARROW'S USEFULNESS IN AMERICA. 



IN the very imperfect sketch which I have given of 

 the sparrow's life in its American home, which is 

 mainly based upon my own observations, I would be 

 guilty of manifest injustice to my contemporaries who 

 have written upon the subject, if I should omit to make 

 mention of their writings and discoveries. Besides, I 

 would be neglecting a duty which I owe as well to my- 

 self as to them. The value of confirmatory evidence 

 cannot be adequately appreciated. The evidence which 

 I have to offer, therefore, will be both of an affirmative 

 and of a negative character. 



In the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History for 

 1867, Mr. Lawrence has given a brief sketch of the 

 sparrow's introduction, and of the benefits which had 

 accrued therefrom to society up to the time of his 

 writing. He says, "The pest of oar shade trees and 

 horrors of pedestrians (caterpillars of Ennomos subsig- 

 naria) form part of the diet of this species." 



Dr. Charles Pickering, who had obviously given con- 

 siderable attention to the study of the sparrow-question, 

 in the Proceedings of the Boston Society for 1867, 

 cites several authorities to show that these birds have 

 been the enemies of mankind for more than 5000 years. 

 At the period of the invention of writing this bird, 



