340 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



which I know against the Sparrow is that after the peas come in just about this sea- 

 son, they are very destructive to the green peas; they peck the pods, and destroy the 

 peas. * * * But notwithstanding the destruction of a few peas, I think the Spar- 

 rows are of very great advantage to gardeners. (July 17, 1873.) 



[Rev. Francis O. Morris.] 



[Page 164. ] This is the twentieth year I have been rector of Nunbnrnholine, and in 

 the whole of that time I have never but twice, at intervals, known the Sparrows do 

 me any harm that I should not feel ashamed to complain of. They used to breed in 

 great numbers in our dilapidated old church ; and those two years did certainly take 

 the peas in my top garden in a way I did not approve of. But they never did so before 

 or since to any extent worth speaking of, and I always say, "Live, and let live." 

 They do sometimes pick up garden seeds, when sown close to the surface, but I be- 

 lieve are much oftener blamed than they deserve, for what the mice have done. The 

 rows of peas in the garden * * * are this year almost as perfect and full as it is 

 possible to be, though it is on that side that the church tower still affords a home to 

 some of those birds, as do also some large ivy-covered birch trees, while in the other 

 garden, out of their way, there are some gaps, but not much to speak of even there, 

 from whatever cause. 



It is really the fact that I very seldom see the Sparrows eating anything, and I 

 often have wondered what they get to keep themselves in such good condition. I 

 hardly ever go on the road, all the year round, but I see many in the middle of it, 

 here or there ; and when they are down in the garden, they are generally on beds 

 where there is nothing but grains of earth or sand to pick up. This year they have 

 picked off the young leaves of the beet-root in one of our gardens, but I hope the 

 plants will be none the worse for it in the end. In the other gardens they have not 

 touched them at all. 



With regard to the Sparrow being the cause of the diminution in the numbers of 

 martins, I have to remark that the two species have gone on together, pari passu, in 

 all time past. If, then, the latter have been, within the last few years, as is sug- 

 gested, expelled by the former, how is.it that the like was not done before ? How 

 came the martins to hold their own in such numbers till then ? 



This house and the old church near it used to be lined with martins' nests years 

 ago. Since then, we have had none till this year, when first one pair built, another 

 began, but left off; yet some half-dozen pairs are careering morning after morning in 

 front of my study-window, but nothing has come of it so far. (Since I wrote this 

 several other nests have been built, and one begun.) 



We used to have, too, contemporaneously with them, a cloud of Sparrows in the 

 old church roof and tower; and"no doubt they sometimes expelled the martins from 

 their nests. But these were only the exceptions, and the main body held their own 

 against all comers. Even those which are now and then dislodged, build over and 

 over again; the cause, in such cases, of their being late, or over late at the time of 

 migration. 



This year, as I said, three or four pair only are building here, w r hile of some which 

 are building again in the village, most, or nearly all, are domiciling without molesta- 

 tion under the eaves of a farm-house adjoining a fold-yard, the very home of the Spar- 

 rows, and at some cottages immediately opposite to the adjoining stack-yard. 



[Mr. Kobert Gray, ornithologist, and late secretary Natural History Society of Glasgow . ] 



[Page 176.] The Sparrow is very destructive to grain and is able to protect itself. 

 It may, therefore, with advantage, be excluded from protection. 



[Mr. J. E. Harting.J 



[Page 186. ] The Sparrow, although a consumer of grain, feeds itself and young on 

 insects for many weeks at a time when insects are most injurious. 



It therefore deserves protection during the nesting season, or from April 1 to Au- 

 gust 1. 



