Birds. 2389 



opened many hundred sparrows ; and found that if their crops contained anything, 

 that food was corn or seeds. I took, on one occasion, 220 grains of good wheat from 

 the crops of eight birds. I say good plump wheat, not swollen, — as Mr. Hawley would 

 make me to say, — but perfect grains, not chipped or broken in thrashing, which had 

 evidently been procured from a barn or stack, and not tail-end or refuse stuff which 

 had passed the winnowing-machine and been blown into the yard. Next comes the 

 point about the sparrow's bill. I never denied that the bill of this bird might and 

 could take insects ; but I should certainly judge — from its short, thick, stunted forma- 

 tion — that its principal business was not to pick minute beings from the buds of trees, 

 the leaves of plants or the crevices of bark. Lastly, Mr. Hawley says " tend the 

 sparrows, not destroy them." For thirty years or more this tending system was tried, 

 but without effect ; and, in another district, the system of destroying had been tried 

 for years with complete success, with less loss to the corn, and without increased 

 destruction of the vegetables by insects : this led to its adoption here, and so far with 

 equal success. If the birds really do destroy the amount of insects recorded by Mr. 

 Hawley, undoubtedly those who devised the " murderous plan " will suffer for their 

 folly, and if so the readers of the 'Zoologist' shall know it. My calculation about 

 the grain consumed by the sparrow was based upon the opinions of fourteen persons, 

 all living in the country, being about their farms almost daily, and the very nature of 

 whose occupation made them conversant with the habits, manners and characters of 

 the feathered inhabitants which people them. After replying to Mr. Hawley's com- 

 munication there is little to notice in Mr. Duff's. Mr. Duff has one ingenious con- 

 jecture, viz., that the sparrow burrows into corn-ricks for warmth or insects. May I 

 inquire why the bird burrows into ricks of corn, and not into those of hay, clover or 

 stubble hard by ? Would they not be found equally warm and full of insects ? — John 

 Joseph Briygs ; King's Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire, February, 1849. 



Further Observations on the Sparrow. — Messrs. Hawley and Duff (Zool. 2348), 

 as counsel for the sparrows, have most vigorously defended them against Mr. 

 Briggs's charge of " picking and stealing ; " and indeed I in a great measure agree 

 with those two gentlemen, in thinking it both bad policy and cruel to take the 

 lives of so many — I was about to say harmless creatures ; but when all is said and 

 done they are arrant thieves, and in harvest time do great harm, but in the spring- 

 months — during their breeding time — I think quite counterbalance it with the good. 

 At Bottesford Moors, the place where I live, there are a great many sparrows, and 

 until lately I was a dreadful enemy to them, as I thought for a very good reason, 

 which was this : a field of wheat grew adjoining to the farm-yard ; as soon as it 

 began to ripen it was attacked by a whole army of sparrows, and I should think 

 that the part nearest the farm (probably about an acre) did not yield one quarter of 

 wheat, while all the rest would yield three quarters and a half per acre : this enraged 

 me I must confess, and I commenced a fiery persecution against them, which lasted 

 with unabating vigour until the spring, when one day, having been informed there 

 were some nests under a cart-shade, I went in search of them, and not finding them 

 sat down to wait for the coming of the old birds. I had not waited long before one 

 came, darted under a tile, and in a few seconds flew away again. " Well," thought I, 

 " now is my time to catch the young rascals ; " so up I climbed to the roof of the 

 building and drew out the nest, which contained four newly-hatched sparrows. I took 

 the young ones in my hands, when lo ! a green caterpillar crept from the mouth of 

 one. I killed the four young birds, and each had caterpillars in it : this caused me 

 VII I 



