6 



And the same applies more or less to New Zealand* 

 and Australia f. 



It is almost as difficult to guess the value of the corn 

 which Sparrows consume annually in England as to 

 estimate the harm which might be done by the cater- 

 pillars with which they feed their young; but I believe 

 one Sparrow will eat 5000 grains of corn in a year at 

 any country farmstead; and this conjecture is not arrived 

 at, as Mr. Morris supposes, from the fact of 20 or 

 25 grains having been occasionally found in a Sparrow 

 in November, but from counting the grains and writing 

 down the results of very numerous dissections at all 

 seasons of the year. 



Mr. Morris is not accurate in one of his quotations : 

 I did not say that Sparrows ever worked " their 

 way through a whole field in regular progression" 

 (' Sparrow- Shooter/ p. 6). What I said was that 

 Sparrows might "be seen sticking to the gradually 

 lessening square of corn until all the field is cut " ( ( The 

 House- Sparrow/ p. 4), i. e., on the day when the farmer 

 mows it with his reaping-machine. 



* The latest champion of the Sparrow, Mr. Theodore Wood, 

 who writes sensibly about it, speaking of America and New 

 Zealand, says : " So far from rendering itself of service, it has 

 become an unmitigated pest" ('Our Bird Allies/ p. 173). This 

 testimony coming from such a man as Mr. Wood, an avowed 

 upholder of the Sparro\v, is strong, but not one whit stronger than 

 it ought to be. Concerning Great Britain, Mr. Wood says that he 

 has made experiments (I. c. p. 150), and considers that Sparrows 

 do more good than harm. His dissections have led him to a 

 different conclusion from mine; but, if he continues them long 

 enough, I believe he will come round in this matter ; and I am 

 sure (from the many I have examined) that a pair of Sparrows do 

 not supply their young with anything approaching 30,000 cater- 

 pillars (pp. 161, 179) during the breeding-season, unless it be in 

 some very exceptional locality. 



t Cf. l Field,' Nov. 26, 1881, and Dec. 30, 1882. 



