158 GAME AND ITS PBOTECTION. 



which have already been conferred, and it is some- 

 what the fashion to decry the bustling busy immi- 

 grant from abroad; but those who remember the 

 condition of our streets and parks, hung full with 

 disgusting measuring worms pendent from every 

 tree and branch, till to pass through them was an 

 annoyance, will not wholly forget our debt to the 

 English sparrow. He has been, wrongfully I 

 think, accused of driving away our native birds, 

 but before we condemn him it will have to be 

 shown, not only that he has done so, but in addi- 

 tion that he has driven away birds more useful 

 than himself. 



It is but a few years since he was first brought 

 among us, and already have the caterpillars so thor- 

 oughly disappeared, that one is rarely seen in our 

 streets, and the trees are allowed to bear their foli- 

 age in peace, instead of being reduced to bare 

 boughs, as was their invariable fate in old times. 

 The sparrow has been accused, and has been com- 

 pelled to plead guilty of the crime of not eating 

 the hairy as well as the smooth-skinned caterpillar, 

 but it ought to be urged in mitigation, before he is 

 condemned to condign punishment, that his adver- 

 saries do not do so either, while they are guilty of 

 the further crime of not even eating the smooth- 

 skinned kinds. 



