150 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



"Thirdly. Their increase, often four broods in a year, is such that, if they do not 

 drive off other and more desirable species, they will soon crowd them out, and force 

 our songsters to quit their ancient habitats from want of food. 



"Fourthly. Their decided preference for fruit and leaf buds over animal food (i. e., 

 insect larvae) renders them decidedly a pest to horticulturists. 



"Fifthly. They are already, often in large flocks, beginning to visit our grain-fields 

 and destroy a large amount of wheat and rye. Their habits in the grain-fields are 

 much the same as those of the reed-birds on the reeds. They cling to the stalk with 

 all the agility of that bird and strip the head of grain of nearly every kernel. Just as 

 the reed-birds visit, in untold millions, the rice plantations, and destroy so much of 

 that grain, so, before long will the coming legions of sparrows attack our wheat 

 and rye. 



"I might add a dozen objections other than these, but have we not here sufficient to 

 demonstrate that the introduction of this bird was the introduction of a pest?" 



At the close of the discussion a vote was taken on the question of whether or not, in 

 the opinion of those present, the further increase of the house sparrows in this country 

 was desirable. The result was a unanimous negative. 



H. A. PURDIE, 

 Secretary Nuttall Ornithological Club. 



And now for an article on the other side. Dr. H. A. Hagen, profes- 

 sor of entomology in Harvard University, published the following article 

 in the American Agriculturist for May, 1878 : 



The decisions of the "Nuttall Club," of which a report is given in No. 18 of the "N. 

 Y. Country," are based upon observations contradicting in several points the older 

 ones, which are accepted by science, in the most decided manner. It appears by the 

 report that the Club either had no knowledge of these earlier observations, covering a 

 space of more than a century, and sustained by ornithologists of well-known reputa- 

 tion, or that it did not deem it worth while to compare its own observations with 

 earlier ones, which ought to have been done to fulfill the well-known demands of 

 science. The sparrow literature is large, and opinions during the past century have 

 considerably changed, until the final decision is most decidedly favorable to its value. 



I will select only three authors, who are ornithologists, each one an authority for 

 the economic natural history of his time, covering a space of one hundred years, and 

 showing the gradual progress of the opinion as to the value of the sparrow. 



Mr. T. F. Bock, in 1784, considered the sparrow simply as a nuisance, so injurious 

 and obnoxious that he demanded that the legislature should be applied to for its de- 

 struction; this was carried out several times with such pernicious effect that the spar- 

 row had to be introduced again. It is not necessary to give Mr. Bock's decisions, as 

 they are exactly identical the carnivorous and murderous habits excepted with 

 those of the Nuttall Club in 1878. 



Mr. F. M. Bechstein, in 1795, says: "The food of the sparrow, insects and grain, 

 indicates him to be beneficial instead of injurious. In spring he visits all fruit-trees, 

 collects caterpillars from the leaves and flowers, and kills an exceedingly large num- 

 ber of May-beetles to feed his young. In summer he lives on the seeds of lettuce and 

 spinach, on young pears, cherries, grapes, and berries. In the fall he goes into the 

 grain-field and oats a large quantity of ripening or ripe grain. The greatest benefit 

 he confers is in the destruction of innumerable noxious insects, May-beetles, pea-gruba, 

 caterpillars, and grasshoppers, to feed his young." 



The sparrow is from this not so injurious as he was declared to be in former times, 

 and upon the whole is certainly more beneficial than harmful. I know towns where 

 sparrows were killed as injurious, but the fruit-trees there never had fruit, though 

 other towns in the neighborhood had plenty of it. The cause was that the caterpil- 

 lars were not killed by the sparrows. Through loss came wisdom ; the sparrows were 

 again introduced, and it was found more profitable to protect the fruit-trees and vines 

 against their depredation by simple artificial means. 



