EVIDENCE. — PUBLISHED TESTIMONY. 301 



the cabbage butterfly in a most determined manner, though I am not sure I have ever 

 seen them catch any of them. (January 26, 1886.) 



Strathroy. L. H. Smith : I have watched old birds for hours carrying grasshoppers 

 to their young ones. These are the only insects I can name, but I have seen them 

 hunting for insects on my lawn, but do not know what kiuds. (October 4, 1S86. 

 Present about twelve years.) 



Toronto. Dr. William Brodie: With us the Sparrows, in the fall season any way, 

 feed largely on grasshoppers. Of forty three specimens, shot outside city limits, be- 

 tween August 20 and September 13, 1886, the gizzards of twenty-seven contained 

 grasshoppers, Caloptenus femur-rubrum, and CEdipoda Carolina, which is surely a very 

 good record for the Sparrow. (November 15, 1887.) 



[See also Dr. Brodie's reports on the food of the Sparrow, pages 311-314, 327-329, 

 of this Bulletin.] 



Nova Scotia. — Kentville I was told by Mr. Elihu Wood worth, now of Sackville, 

 New Brunswick, formerly of Kentville, Nova Scotia, that when the Sparrow first ap- 

 peared iu Kentville, in 1881, canker-worms were abundant and everywhere increas- 

 ing, and the Sparrows never rested until they had utterly exterminated them. (T. 

 A. H. Mason, Sackville, New Brunswick. August 24, 1886.) 



Two Rivers. B. B. Barnhill: It feeds on insects from the leaves of trees, and de- 

 stroys the little green worm such as is seen on curraut and gooseberry bushes. (Au- 

 gust 20, 1886. ) 



SECTION SECOND-PUBLISHED TESTIMONY. 



OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE SPARROW QUESTION. 



The preparation of a list of books and lesser publications relating to 

 the Sparrow does not fall within the province of the present Bulletin, 

 but it may be well briefly to outline the history of the " Sparrow ques- 

 tion" in other countries as well as in America. 



The history of the Sparrow begins with the history of man, and there 

 is every reason to believe that this bird was well known to people of 

 whom we have no written history ; certainly frequent mention of it is 

 made in the histories of the earliest civilizations of Europe. The Spar- 

 row is mentioned repeatedly by Aristotle, and by almost every European 

 writer on natural history who succeeded him. 



At a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, held April 

 17, 1867, Dr. Charles Pickering called attention to the recent introduc- 

 tion into the United States of the Houso Sparrow of Europe, stating 

 that as it threatened great evil preventive measures should be speedily 

 adopted. The official report of this meeting contains the following*: 



Proofs of its destructive habks were cited from standard authors, showing that the 

 bird had been the acknowledged enemy of mankind for more than live thousand years. 

 When writing was invented the Sparrow was selected for the hieroglyphic charac- 

 ter signifying enemy. 



Sonnini, in the Dictionaire d'Histoire Naturelle, published in 1817, says : 

 '•Sparrows are impudent parasites, living only in society with man, and dividing 

 with him his grain, his fruit, andhishome; they attack the first fruit thatripens, the 



