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the weather is favorable, three or four broods of four to six each being the usual number 

 of young raised in a season, and as it generally breeds in town it is not subject to the 

 attacks of carnivorous birds and animals to the extent to which our native birds are 

 troubled. 



Out of a large number of stomachs of adults examined by the writer, so much as- 

 fifty per cent, of insects has been found, the proportion varying from this to none, in 

 which latter instances the contents generally consisted entirely of road-pickings and grain. 

 The stomachs of young birds taken from the nest usually contained from one-quarter to 

 one-half of insect remains, but instances are not wanting where stomachs even of 

 unfledged young contained nothing but road-pickings, although the belief that they feed 

 their young to a considerable extent on insects is amply proven. Their numbers in our 

 country are not such as would lead one to believe that they might commit havoc among 

 grain fields, but the record they bring with them from Europe shews this to be their 

 habit, and already reports of great damage to single fields are coming in from different 

 localities, and thus public opinion is being aroused to the probability that they are 

 destined to be a factor in determining the results of agriculture in our country. Reports 

 have reached the writer from different directions around London that they have seriously 

 affected the yield of wheat from certain fields, and it is within the range of the experience of 

 almost every gardener that they sometimes do serious damage to the buds of fruit trees 

 and shrubs, and also that they often attack the ripe fruit itself. 



That they cannot be depended on to attack any particular insect every time it appears 

 is shown by a recent letter from the President of our Society, in which, after referring 

 to their attack on a scourge of apple aphis, and stating that he saw one devour a larva of 

 the common tent caterpillar, he sa} r s, " On the other hand, when trees have been 

 swarming with Clisiocampa Americana (the tent caterpillar), as in 1887, the sparrows 

 flew into the trees in large numbers, but I never saw them touch a caterpillar except in 

 the above-mentioned instance/' 



Some people in the country realize the fact that this bird is an unmitigated nuisance; 

 one striking case having recently been brought to my knowledge, where a farmer living 

 close to the city limits of London, where these birds abound, goes to considerable trouble 

 to prevent their permanent access to his farm, and as a result the trees around his house 

 and over his farm are inhabited by such birds as the Orioles, Vireos, Tanagers, Warblers 

 and others, whose brilliant plumage, sweet voices and entertaining ways far more than 

 repay him for his expenditure of time and trouble in protecting them, while they render 

 him untiring service in ridding his farm of noxious insects which would otherwise 

 multiply at his expense. On the contrary, other farms with which I am familiar, as a 

 result of indifference, have for their bird music the strident tones of the sparrow, and 

 instead of having the foliage of their trees and shrubs kept in good condition by the 

 ceaseless activity of our native songsters, their houses are made foul, their tempers tried 

 and their crops attacked by this intruder, who takes upon himself the onus of crowding 

 out many and driving out more of the original avian inhabitants. 



This state of aflairs cannot but cause grave concern to those who have given their 

 attention to the matter, but as yet nothing has been done towards the extirpation of the 

 nuisance beyond recommendations to the public looking to the lessening of their numbers 

 in various ways, such as preventing them from breeding by destroying nests whenever 

 possible, taking down houses put up for their accommodation, as well as those erected for 

 other birds and usurped by the one in question, and refraining from feeding them at all 

 times, which may sometimes result in starvation in winter. 



In England, where the bird is indigenous, the damage done of late years has been 

 enormous, and it has been stated by Miss Eleanor Ormerod, in a letter to the Times, of 

 January 13th, 1885, that the ravages on wheat have been " estimated by judges of the 

 farm crops in some districts to amount to one-third of the crop," and Miss Ormerod is 

 one of the most promiuent economic entomologists in England, and has devoted a large 

 portion of her life to the study of the bearings of entomology on Agriculture, and has 

 included the sparrow in her labours, affecting as it does so largely the results of agricul- 

 ture in that country. In a paper read before the Farmer's Club, April 30th, 1885, Miss- 



