NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 85 



occurs nightly. I cannot think what these city sparrows are 

 talking about ; they all talk at once, so the subject of the 

 conversation must be important. I could not make out that 

 they had elected a chairman. They might have been debating 

 who was to be elected "Lord Mayor of all the Sparrows" in 

 November. Will somebody who understands sparrow-language 

 kindly report the debates at these meetings ? 



Sparrows are much used for shooting matches. The price is 

 2s. per dozen. Large numbers of sparrows leave London after 

 harvest and go upon the stubbles to feed ; they return again 

 to London during the winter months, 1 when farmers begin to 

 plough in the stubble. In September there are hardly any spar- 

 rows in London. After they have been caught at and thinned 

 several times, they become artful, and the moment they see the 

 net they cry, " Jim, jim, jim," and are off. An old Jim is as 

 cunning as an old man from seeing his friends so often caught in 

 the net. Sparrows are a great pest to the Zoological Gardens, 

 by entering into the food houses, and especially the warm 

 houses in winter. Since the establishment of the Zoological 

 Gardens in 1826, nearly fifty years ago, the sparrows have been 

 netted, shot, and caught at all seasons ; the nests also have been 

 robbed of their young whenever and wherever they could bu 

 obtained. In spite of this constant war of extermination for 

 it is a war there are probably more sparrows in the gardens 

 at the present time than ever existed since the establishment of 

 the Society. If this constant persecution or destruction of them 

 had not been kept up, it would be utterly impossible to keep 

 a collection of waterfowl, gallinaceous birds, or any grain-eating 

 animal. So tame and impudent is this multitude of sparrows, 

 that they wait in large numbers for the keepers, who go round 

 to feed the various animals, and before he can leave the feeding 

 trough it will be blackened by the numbers of sparrows. If 

 not caught and destroyed, the poor animals in the gardens, 

 especially the water-fowl, would be starved. Eightpeuce per 

 dozen is paid for sparrows ; they are used as food for the 

 serpents, falcons, and small mammalia, and are very useful, as 

 they could not always be bought when required. Many of the 

 smaller animals could not exist without food of this kind. 



1 Mr. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens, does not think the sparrows go 

 away froia London. Sparrows about provincial towns probably do go away 

 into the stubble. Mr. Bartlett's reason for doubting the exodus is that 

 sparrows are of very short flight, and if they did go into the country we should 

 see sparrows with c-lcan leathers on their return : this we never do, the Lon- 

 don sparrow being always a smoky, dirty-looking individual. 



