CONCLUDING REMARKS. 101 



squares became alive with caterpillars. The rusty 

 vaporer crawled everywhere. Sparrows were never 

 more plentiful. They abandoned their carnivorous pro- 

 pensities, in a great measure, and took to vegetable diet 

 with a cheerful cbirp. Their rural brethren soon 

 followed suit. The sparrows should not be censured, 

 for they merely obeyed the instincts of their nature. 

 Necessity compelled them to insect diet. 



In the spring, when plenty reigns supreme, they live 

 at their ease, and in the most luxurious enjoyment. I 

 can but repeat what I have iterated before. They are 

 lazy pilferers, who set the unwholesome example of 

 consuming what they do not earn. They should be 

 colonized and sent back to England. If this plan is not 

 practicable, take away from them the protection of the 

 law, and let us have some return (we can never expect 

 an equivalent) for the losses we have sustained. In 

 England the peasantry are paid for potting them into 

 sparrow-pies. Here no expense need be incurred. They 

 can be made a source of revenue, as well as a sustainer 

 of life. 



From the evidence adduced in Chapters II. and III., 

 being overwhelming in amount, and coming as it does 

 from the most reliable authorities, there can be little 

 doubt of the sparrow's utter uselessness. The testimony 

 produced, of a negative character, is outweighed in 

 quadruple proportion by that upon the opposite side. 

 The small proportion of caterpillars destroyed, when 

 contrasted with the waste and destruction of grains, 

 blossoms, and fruits of various kinds, without reckoning 

 the indirect injuries perpetrated in the expulsion of 

 scores of highly insectivorous native species, must be 

 apparent to every one who has given its history a careful 



