!- 4 [Proc. B.N.F.C.. 



No bird ever had a fairer or more impartial trial both here and in 

 America ; the verdict is guilty, with scarcely one extenuating 

 circumstance. Again it is hard for us to realise the cost in 

 figures, but a large farmer near Chester told his audience that 

 Sparrows did the country ^770,094 worth of damage in a year, 

 reckoning a bushel per sown acre all over the Kingdom. That 

 this measure is much too low will be seen by the following story: — 



A farmer in the County of Essex had an early field of wheat 

 not far from the village of Boreham. The Sparrows attacked it 

 in the corner nearest the village and devoured a great deal there ; 

 the crop was uniform except from what the Sparrows did. The 

 farmer measured an acre where the Sparrows had been at work, 

 and an adjoining acre which they had not meddled with, and 

 threshed the corn on each of the acres separately, looking after 

 the threshing himself. He found the loss to be 16 bushels, value 

 at the time £6. 



The result of the examination of 694 stomachs of adult 

 Sparrows, at various times and places in Great Britain for over a 

 year, should make the farmer pause. It shows that about So per 

 cent, of an adult Sparrow's food is cultivated grain of some sort, 

 chiefly corn, the remaining 20 per cent, may be roughly divided 

 as follows : — 



Seeds of Weeds 

 Green Peas 

 Beetles ... 

 Caterpillars 

 Insects which fly 



10 per cent. 

 4 per cent. 

 3 per cent. 

 2 per cent. 

 1 per cent. 



In young Sparrows not more than 40 per cent, is corn, while 

 about 40 per cent, consists of caterpillars, and 10 per cent, of 

 small beetles. This is, however, only up to the age of 16 days ; 

 after that they go for corn. This is a point which should be 

 specially remembered, because the friends of the Sparrow keep on 

 pointing out the good that he does by feeding his children on 



