RILEY ON ITS INSECTIVOROUS HABITS. 3 25 



one at any season (particularly between June and March) in a Sparrow 

 old enough to feed itself, and have very seldom found any number of 

 insects in one even when corn could scarcely be got." Speaking 

 broadly, he continues: "It may be said that, unless very near houses 

 and roads, Sparrows take no insects in the fields. Fifty old Sparrows, 

 and young ones which could feed themselves, were killed one summer 

 about my buildings and garden, with food in their crops. This food, 

 carefully examined (as in all cases, with a lens), was found to be corn, 

 milky, green, and ripe, and sometimes green peas from my garden ; 

 only two small insects were found in the whole number. The food in 

 them has been much the same every year. On the whole, the deduc- 

 tion from the food test during fifteen years seems to be that the Spar- 

 rows are useless, and that the insects which would be given to their 

 young by them if they were allowed to live in numbers about my prem- 

 ises would be so much food taken, when they most want it, from better 

 birds which live entirely, or nearly so, on insects, and thus keep them, 

 especially caterpillars, down so effectively in the absence of Sparrows 

 that, when a chance pair of these come and build, there are few of their 

 favorite sorts for them." 



Dr. Schleh, of Herford, Germany, in his "Nutzen und Schaden des 

 Sperlings im Houshalte der ]STatur, ?? as quoted by E. Ingersoll in Science 

 (Vol. VII, p. 80, January 22, 1886), says that young Sparrows, while in 

 the nest and for a week after having left it, subsist entirely on insects, 

 grubs, etc. Two weeks after leaving the nest their food still consists of 

 43 per cent, of animal food ; a week later of 31 per cent., and after that 

 age of only 19 per cent. As soon as independent they prefer seeds." 

 He is one of the few authors who believe the Sparrow to be beneficial, 

 but, so far as I can learn, he assumes all insects to be noxious. 



REVIEW OF WORK DONE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



Peter Henderson, of Bergen City, X. J., in his book on " Practical 

 Floriculture," says (p. 173) that in the summer of 1866 acres of young 

 rose bushes were attacked by slugs (Selandria) and Ajphis, but that in 

 1868 a whole army of thousands of English Sparrows acted as volunteer 

 exterminators. Cue Sparrow was shot, and his crop contained seeds, 

 Selandria, and Aphis in great abundance. No one has a higher appre- 

 ciation of Mr. Henderson's practical knowledge of gardening and the 

 nursery business generally, but knowing how often the rose slug and 

 the rose Aphis disappear suddenly in summer time from natural causes, 

 my old-time friend will pardon a doubt as to whether the Sparrow de- 

 served the full credit which he gives it. 



Ily late friend, Dr. John L. LeOonte, in 1874 gave an interesting ac- 

 count (see abstract Proc. Am. Asso. Adv., vol. 23, p. 44) of the replace- 

 ment of Ennomos subsignaria, a span-worm that had been very injurious 

 to shade trees in Philadelphia and other cities, by Orgyia leucostigma, 

 through the Sparrows eating the former and avoiding the latter, just as 



