EVIDENCE — FROM EUROPEAN PUBLICATIONS. 339 



as I could. They turn them out sometimes when the nest is half formed, like a cup, 

 and sometimes when they have had young ones they have turned them out. I have 

 found the young ones thrown out and lying on the ground. 



I may add that some persons have said that the Sparrows do good inasmuch as 

 they eat green caterpillars off gooseberry and currant trees. Now, my children told 

 me yesterday that the caterpillars had eaten up all the currant trees. My garden 

 joins the farm-yard, and there are plenty of Sparrows in the garden, so I do not see 

 that they eat the caterpillars at all. (July 17, 1873.) 



[Mr. James Pertwee in paper Landed in to the committee.] 



[Page 175. ] House Sparrows. — It is scarcely possible to say too much against these 

 obnoxious birds ; they live almost entirely upon corn, and will not take insects, grub 

 or caterpillar, except when their young are very small; begin to attack the corn before 

 any other bird, and give their young green peas, bailey, and wheat as soon as the ker- 

 nel is formed ; do not even eat seeds of weeds or plants, because they are not found in 

 the fields, except when and after there is corn. I would give £5 a year to be protected 

 entirely against them. At this time my gooseberry trees are infested with caterpil- 

 lars, although the garden is very near to the farm-yard, and a gentleman told me 

 on Tuesday last that his garden joined the stack-yard, yet the green caterpillar was 

 stripping the leaves off his gooseberry trees. 



[Mr. James Harrison, gardener and bailiff (residence at Heatblands, Hampstead).] 



[Page 152.] The Sparrow is a very good insect-catcher at certain seasons, when he 

 eats caterpillars. The only trouble that gardeners have with him is at the time young 

 peas are inseason. Then he is inclined to take too much, and only then. Ihavenever 

 destroyed a bird during the twenty years that I have had charge of gardens ; and I 

 would not destroy even the Sparrow. (July 17, 1873.) 



[Mr. John Colam, secretary Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.] 



[Page 154.] With regard to the Sparrow, I have often~seen him devouring large 

 caterpillars, and this very day I have seen a Sparrow attacking spiders in a most 

 voracious manner, and clearing them off the copings of the walls at Wandsworth. 

 (July 17, 1873.) 



[Mr. Jesse Willarcl, gardener to Lady Burdett-Contts.J 



[Page 155.] I know for a fact that the common House Sparrow eats caterpillars, for 

 I can give an instance of that. The cottage I live in is covered with ivy, and against 

 the bed-room window is a Sparrow's nest with young ones in it. I have seen the old 

 Sparrows come in the morning from some pear trees opposite, and alight on the win- 

 dow-sill with caterpillars in their mouths. You could see them quite plainly. I should 

 say in passing, that instances have come under my notice in which, where the cater- 

 pillars have been rather numerous, they have been passed almost unnoticed by other 

 birds, and all at once the Sparrow has made a sudden set at them and cleared them 

 off. 1 recently had a brother of mine come up from the country ; he lives in the 

 Weald of Kent, where they grow a great many filberts ; he was not favorable to birds, 

 on the whole, but he said this fact had come under his notice : They had some fil- 

 berts on which there was a large amount of caterpillars ; all at once the Sparrows set 

 at them and cleared them off; at the same time, for some reason or other, they seemed 

 to pass them by for a time quite regardless, but all at once they set at them. I have 

 seen that apparent caprice myself. (July 17, 1-73.) 



[Mr. James Bell, gardener to the Duke of "Wellington, Strathfieldsaye, Hampshire.] 



[Page 156. ] I have seen a wren carrying green caterpillars off the fruit trees all day 

 long to her young ones. I have seen a Sparrow going on just in the same way as the 

 wren, only the Sparrow's family is not so numerous as the wren's. The only thing. 



