SOCIALITY OF SPARROWS. 221 



the service they render and the evil they do. Such are Sparrows 

 and other hard-billed birds. Frederick the Great declared war 

 against Sparrows, because they were just as fond as His Majesty of 

 cherries. Of course they beat a retreat and disappeared. But in 

 two years, not only no cherries were to be had, but scarcely any 

 other fruit ; the caterpillars took the lion's share. The mighty king 

 was glad to sign a treaty of peace with the birds, in which they 

 stipulated for a moderate share of the blackhearts and the white- 

 hearts in the royal gardens. 



But if Sparrows, Rooks, and others of their kind exact payment 

 for their services, the third class, much more numerous, give their 

 aid gratuitously. Such are the nocturnal birds of prey, whom igno- 

 rance pursues as 4 of evil omen.' Better than cats, they neither 

 steal the milk nor lick the cream ; they are the terror of all sorts of 

 rats and field-mice, not to mention the multitude of night-flying 

 insects they destroy. 



The Hedge Sparrow devours per day some five hundred and fifty 

 insects, amongst which figure the kinds the most redoubtable to 

 man. Now, of the harm done by one of these insects you may 

 form, Messieurs les Senateurs, some idea, if you recollect that the 

 cockchafer lays from seventy to a hundred eggs, soon to be trans- 

 formed into so many worms, which for three or four years live 

 exclusively on the roots of your most precious plants. The weevil 

 lays about the same number of eggs, each of which destroys a kernel 

 of wheat; one weevil may, therefore, be assumed to cause the 

 destruction of an ear of wheat alone. The pyralus deposits about a 

 hundred and twenty eggs in about as many blossom buds of the 

 vine. From each egg so deposited ensues the loss of a bunch of 

 grapes. 



And now, Messieurs, be pleased to deign to put these two sets of 

 figures together. Admitting that, out of the five hundred insects 

 destroyed in a day by one bird, the tenth only are noxious creatures 

 say forty weevils and ten pyraluses (which is below the truth) 

 you have an average of more than three thousand kernels of wheat 

 and eleven hundred bunches of grapes saved in one day by one 

 little bird. 



M'Gillivray observes that the social propensity is more 

 apparent in the Sparrow than in any other British species 

 of its family; for even during the breeding season it is 

 seen searching for food in small groups, and in autumn 

 and winter it is decidedly gregarious, although irregularly 

 so, for the individuals of a flock do not seem to consort 

 with each other exclusively, and betake themselves to the 

 same roosting places. The flocks, on the contrary, are 

 accidentally formed by individuals casually meeting with 



