PASSERIFORMES 169 



the Wellington Philosophical Institute in 1878. In the discussion 

 which followed, Mr W. T. L. Travers said that "His experience led 

 him to believe that their principal food was insects. The cicadae 

 especially are caught in hundreds by them " Sir Walter Buller 

 says: 



If the sparrow is fond of ripe grain it is still fonder of the ripe seeds of 

 the variegated Scotch Thistle. This formidable weed threatened at one time 

 to overrun the whole colony. Where it had once fairly established itself 

 it seemed well nigh impossible to eradicate it, and it was spreading with 

 alarming rapidity, forming a dense growth which nothing could face. In 

 this state of affairs the sparrows took to eating the ripe seeds. In tens of 

 thousands they lived on the thistle, always giving it the preference to wheat 

 or barley. They have succeeded in conquering the weed. In all directions 

 it is dying out. 



I have myself watched sparrows hawking for moths and crickets, and 

 have observed them feeding on the fruits of meadow plantain 

 (Plantago major) and of dandelion (Taraxacum densleonis). 



Dr Hilgendorf points out that "so purely a grain-eating bird as 

 the sparrow feeds its nestlings for about six weeks on nothing but 

 insects." 



During the Farmers' Union Conference in May, 1918, one delegate 

 stated that during the preceding season his grain crop of 40 acres 

 was black with caterpillars, as many as three or four being on each 

 head. Then sparrows attacked them, and in a short time not a cater- 

 pillar was to be seen. 



Sparrows are often very destructive to flowers in gardens, picking 

 them to pieces for no ostensible cause. Primroses, violets, crocuses 

 are the most commonly attacked, and these are all spring-flowering. 

 The habit is recorded from several parts of New Zealand. 



The native hawk (Circus gouldi), kingfisher (Halcyon vagans), long- 

 tailed cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis) and shining cuckoo (Chalco- 

 coccyx lucidus) are all credited with catching and destroying sparrows 1 . 



1 Dr Cleland, writing of the food of the sparrow in New South Wales, says : 

 "One hundred and twenty-seven sparrows were examined, the majority of them 

 coming from Richmond, New South Wales. Sixty-four were found to feed on 

 wheat and maize. Various grass seeds were found in others. Occasionally they have 

 been found to feed on white ants, cabbagemoth larvae, cutworms, locust, blow- 

 flies and aphids. The large amount of grain eaten far outweighs any value that the 

 sparrow may have as an insectivorous bird during the period when such grain is 

 available, but during other seasons of the year it probably plays a mildly useful 

 part." (It is to be noted that the 127 birds referred to by Dr Cleland were shot in 

 May. Had sparrows been examined in September to November, the results would 

 almost certainly have been different.) One of the birds examined contained 400 

 millet seeds, besides maize and other grasses. It is due very largely to sparrows 

 about Sydney, that several species of Cicadas are almost extinct. 



