270 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



ful rapidity, and is spreading over the whole country, 

 having, in fact, already occupied almost all the thickly 

 settled portions. Returns were secured from all parts of 

 the country, from friends of the sparrow as well as from its 

 enemies. It seems well substantiated that where they have 

 become numerous they attack apples, pears, grapes and all 

 kinds of small fruits, eating and destroying both flowers and 

 fruit in their season. Garden vegetables suffer from their 

 ravages, particularly peas, tomatoes and lettuce. Garden 

 seeds are also largely preyed upon. All kinds of grain are 

 their natural food, and their ravages on fields just sown and 

 on the ripened grain are in proportion to the number of the 

 birds in the vicinity. 



The English sparrow is an enemy to our native birds. No 

 less than seventy species are reported to suffer from their 

 attacks, and many of them have been driven from their native 

 homes by these emigrants. 



Post-mortem examinations made by Prof. C. V. Riley and 

 Dr. B. H. Warren for the United States department of 

 agriculture show that the amount of insect food which the 

 English sparrow consumes is very small compared with the 

 amount of vegetable food ; and the conclusion of the depart- 

 ment and of the American Ornithologists' Union, whose 

 members made many observations for the department, was 

 that the English sparrow {Passer domesticus) was not only 

 of no benefit to the country, but was a positive injury, and 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, ornithologist to the United States 

 department of agriculture, officially recommended the repeal 

 of all laws protecting English sparrows. 



Thinking that information direct from the native home 

 of the English sparrow would be interesting, the secretary 

 of this Board in July last wrote the secretary of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, stating the action of our 

 last Legislature, and asking what English authorities say 

 upon the habits of this bird. His reply was as follows : — 



Rotal Agricultural Society of England, 



12 Hanover Square, London, W., July 23, 1890. 

 Dear Sir : — On receipt of your letter of the 3d instant, I 

 thought it best to call for a memoraudum on the subject from the 

 society's consulting entomologist, and a copy of this memorandum 



