PASSERIFORMES 165 



took on board thirteen dozen house-sparrows, which are generally known 

 by the common name of " Sparrow." He was very attentive to them on 

 the voyage out, believing that they were the valuable hedge-sparrows which 

 the colonists were anxious to secure. Most of them died, however, and 

 when he reached Lyttelton in February, 1867, only five were left. The 

 officers of the Society, realising that a mistake had been made, refused to 

 accept the strangers. The Captain then took them out of their cage, and, 

 remarking that the poor little beggars had had a bad time, set them at 

 liberty. They flew up into the rigging and remained twittering there for 

 some time. The members of the Society went below to look at other birds. 

 When they reached the deck again the sparrows had flown. The birds 

 stayed about Lyttelton for three weeks. Then they disappeared, and when 

 next heard of they were at Kaiapoi, about twenty miles distant, where, at 

 the end of 1869, they were reported as being "particularly numerous." 



This story was evidently current in Canterbury, for at the annual 

 meeting of the Society in Christchurch in 1885, the Chairman, the 

 Hon. J. T. Peacock, said: "The Society used to give bonuses to 

 captains of ships for bringing out small birds. One captain brought 

 five sparrows, which the Society refused to purchase, and which 

 that captain let go himself. From those five, the whole of the sparrows 

 in the Province had, he believed, sprung." 



In the report for 1889, under the heading "The Sparrow," the 

 same Society are responsible for this statement : " we most deliberately 

 deny ordering or introducing this questionable bird, but we well 

 remember the devastations made by the caterpillars and grubs previous 

 to their advent." 



In 1895 Mr A. Bathgate of Dunedin wrote : " I believe our (Otago) 

 Society turned out one or two, but the sparrows came to us from 

 Christchurch." 



Now for the actual facts. 



According to Sir Walter BuUer the Wanganui Society introduced 

 sparrows in 1866, and these were therefore the first brought into the 

 country. But the Nelson Society forestalled Wanganui, for they suc- 

 ceeded in bringing in one sparrow in 1862. 



The Canterbury Society in 1864 printed a list of prices which 

 they offered to immigrants for each pair (cock and hen) of birds, viz. : 



The same Society liberated forty sparrows in 1867, and the annual 



