164 LETTERS TO MR. TEGETMEIER [CHAP. xvi. 



I should have liked to write just a short note to the 

 " Field " to mention how well the matter has been taken 

 up, but I did not feel sure whether you would wish me to 

 do it ? Would you think well of just mentioning the large 

 demand yourself ? On several days the applications ran to 

 above a hundred letters. I am keeping the letters, for in 

 some there is very practical observation as to the great 

 injury done by sparrows especially attacking corn on 

 allotments. 



AugUSt 22, 1897. 



I am trying if the thing be possible to rout people out 

 of the time-honoured old holes that they creep into as the 

 emigration of the sparrows also the Maine and Auxerre 

 story. These, I think, we have managed. 



[The following is an extract from the " House Sparrow " 

 pamphlet : 



" For many years mention has been made, by those who 

 consider sparrow preservation desirable, of great disasters 

 following on some not clearly detailed methods of extermi- 

 nation, or expulsion of the sparrow in the countries of 

 Hungary and Baden, and also in the territory of Prussia ; 

 and, nearer our own time, in Maine, and near Auxerre in 

 France. With regard to the three first named, a record 

 will be found in our own ' Times' for August 21, 1861, p. 7. 



" This gives a translation from the French paper, the 

 ' Moniteur/ of a report on four petitions relative to pre- 

 servation of small birds which had been presented to the 

 French Corps Legislatif. The report contains much infor- 

 mation, but in respect to the emigrations of the sparrow 

 because the bird was aware of the plots that were being 

 laid against its safety, the statements cannot be said to carry 

 any weight. The following extract is inserted, as it is 

 important to agriculturists to have a correct copy of the 

 baseless statements they are sometimes called on to believe. 

 The passage is as follows : 



" ' Now, if the facts mentioned in the petitions are exact, 

 according to the opinion of many this bird ought to stand 

 much higher than he is reputed. In fact, it is stated that a 

 price having been set upon his head in Hungary and Baden, 

 the intelligent proscrit left those countries ; but it was soon 

 discovered that he alone could manfully contend against 

 the cockroaches and the thousand winged insects of the 

 lowlands, and the very men who offered a price for his 

 destruction offered a still higher price to introduce him 



