OTHER ZOOLOGICAL WORK 191 



the Protection of Sea Birds was one result of the 

 Report which was rendered to the Association 

 early in that year. This Report shows a tender- 

 ness for certain species of bird, notably the 

 common sparrow, which did not represent Teget- 

 meier's views twenty or thirty years later. In 

 the interval he had discovered good reason to 

 revise his opinion on this head, as appears from 

 his vigorous pamphlet on " The House Sparrow," 

 which he characterised as " The Avian Rat." 

 This was published in conjunction with Miss 

 Eleanor A. Ormerod, F.E.S., in 1899, by Messrs. 

 Vinton & Co. Sparrows, in many parts of the 

 country, had then become a serious pest to the 

 farmer, and Tegetmeier vigorously preached 

 the uses of the " Sparrow Club " as a means for 

 the reduction of their devastating numbers. It 

 was one thing to advocate the protection of birds 

 as a general principle, but when a species became 

 so numerous as to cause economic harm, the 

 thing assumed another complexion, and the 

 sentimentalists who urged the cause of " God's 

 little sparrows " received small mercy at his 

 hands. They had no answer to his pointed 

 inquiry whether the farmer also was not the 

 handiwork of the Almighty, and also entitled to 

 protection ? 



In his preface to " The Avian Rat," he states 

 that it is computed at a very low estimate that 

 the amount of damage done by sparrows in this 



