Birds. 2349 



become " plump," precisely as it does under the same circumstances in the sparrow's 

 crop. But now to the point: Mr. Briggs asks, " What is lhat bill " (the sparrow's) 

 " made for ? To crack grain or to pick up insects ?" Both, most undoubtedly! as I 

 will endeavour to prove. In the vicinity of my residence were some unoccupied 

 buildings, much resorted to by sparrows and starlings, during great part of spring and 

 summer, for breeding purposes. These buildings, about 200 yards in length, stand 

 between an open common on one side, and corn and grass fields on the other. I have 

 frequently watched these birds feed their young, and found that ihey did so invariably 

 with insects. I have seen the old birds repeatedly shot at these times by tenting boys, 

 and have taken as many as six or eight larvae of the common brimstone moth (Rumia 

 cratagaria) from one bill. I have also found larva? of Pontia brassies and rapae, 

 Abraxas grossularia, of several species of flies and beetles, &c, &c. ; but I have never, 

 at this season, found any corn in their crops, though occasionally seeds of various 

 kinds mixed up with other matter. In autumn I have found their crops distended 

 with corn and other seeds, and in winter I have shot them near corn-ricks and farm- 

 yards with corn in their crops ; so that it is certain they do partially feed on corn. 

 But I dare not say with Mr. Briggs, " if the sparrow is a grain-destroyer he ought to 

 be destroyed," because I believe the good he does in ridding farmer's crops from my- 

 riads of destructive larvae, &c, amply compensates for the few grains of corn he may 

 occasionally take from him. Mr. Briggs agrees with me that the young sparrows are 

 fed on insects : I will, therefore, endeavour to place another calculation by the side of 

 his, which will not, I hope, be without its value. I have watched pairs of sparrows 

 repeatedly feeding their young, and have found that they bring food to the nest once 

 in ten minutes, during at least six hours of the twenty-four, and that each time from 

 two to six caterpillars are brought : every naturalist will know this to be under the 

 mark. Now, suppose the 3500 sparrows destroyed by the " Association for Killing- 

 Sparrows " were to have been alive next spring, each pair to have built a nest and 

 reared successive broods of young during three months, we have, at the rate of 

 252,000 per day, the enormous multitude of 21,168,000 larvae prevented from destroy- 

 ing the products of the land, and from increasing their numbers from fifty to five hun- 

 dred fold ! Granted the sparrow does destroy corn — let the farmer prevent him by all 

 means ; but not surely by the wholesale slaughter counselled by Mr. Briggs : let him 

 employ the tenter. A friend of mine found that blackbirds ate his strawberries, and 

 argued like Mr. Briggs, ergo, " they ought to be destroyed ; " accordingly he placed 

 rat-traps on his beds, and thus put several to a miserable death. I also caught 

 ' blackie ' feeding on my strawberries : I did not altogether approve the practice, but, 

 not being desirous of punishing a creature with death for following the dictates of that 

 instinct implanted in it by its Creator and mine, I spread nets on hoops over my beds, 

 and thus saved my fruit, and left the blackbirds to that enjoyment of existence which 

 was their right equally with my own. Undoubtedly the undue increase of sparrows, 

 mice, &c, is attributable to the indiscriminate destruction of hawks, owls, &c, by ig- 

 norant gamekeepers j but must we therefore imitate their pernicious example, and, by 

 still further carnage, most probably let loose myriads of noxious iusects to devastate 

 our woods and fields ? No ! let us rather try to teach men that the sparrow and hawk 

 have each their office, — each forms a link in the great chain of compensation. And 

 let the " Society for Killing Sparrows " beware, lest, when they find their turnips de- 

 voured by hosts upon hosts of creeping things that they can neither shoot nor trap, 

 they may wish they had paused in their work of destruction, and left a few of their 

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