342 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



In addition to the remarks already made on this point — the damage done to corn 

 by Sparrows — it would he easy to cite many instances of great and unusual harm 

 caused to tenant farmers hy Sparrows, hut they are too vague for the purpose; in- 

 deed, in such a matter it is exceedingly difficult to he precise. In some instances, and 

 especially near towns, extraordinary estimates have been formed of the damage by 

 the most competent valuers, but as these valuers were not ornithologists, it is not 

 clear that some of the damage was not done by greenfinches and chaffinches. I have 

 seen large flocks in the fields in November, which I at first thought- were Sparrows, 

 hut which proved on closer inspection to be entirely composed of the species just 

 named. 



The following true story was related to me by Colonel Russell : A farmer at Bore- 

 ham, near Chelmsford, named Hurrell, had an early field of wheat not far from the 

 village. The Sparrows attacked it in the corner nearest the village and devoured a 

 great deal there. Tbecrop was uniform, except from what the Sparrows did. Hur- 

 rell measured an acre where the Sparrows had been at work, and an adjoining acre 

 which they had not meddled with, and thrashed the corn on each of the acres sepa- 

 rately, looking after the thrashing himself. He found the deficiency to be two quar- 

 ters (16 bushels) ; value at the time, £6. 



The Food of young Sparroics. 



The Sparrow lays five or six grayish-white eggs, spotted with brown and ash color, 

 and has frequently three broods in the year, the first being hatched towards the end 

 of May. Young Sparrows in the nest are generally fed on caterpillars and other in- 

 sects,* particularly in August, yet a good many may he opened in June and July 

 without finding any in them. The parent Sparrows will begin to feed them on cater- 

 pillars when but a day old, but they seem to discontinue the diet a little time before 

 they leave the nest, though, on the other hand, some young Sparrows which were 

 quite ready to leave the nest, examined in Norfolk, did contain a few small caterpil- 

 lars. But of this I am sure that while verj young their diet is quite as much unripe 

 corn and vegetable matter as caterpillars.* Even at the age of one day a Sparrow 

 will feed its young one on a grain of ripe corn. Say that a young Sparrow eats four- 

 teen or fifteen young caterpillars a day, that is probably as good a guess as we can 

 make. If this only went on for ten days the sum total destroyed would he very vast, 

 and some of the caterpillars of very injurious kinds, such as Caradrina cubicularis, 

 the pale mottled willow moth of Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 308), identified for me by 

 Mr. C. G. Barrett and the Rev. J. Hellins.i 



* An instance of young Sparrows being fed on water-beetles occurred at the be- 

 ginning of August, 1S84. My father ordered a pond to be cleaned out, at the bottom 

 of which were a great many small water-beetles \. these, the gardener tells me, were 

 eagerly collected by Sparrows, ten or twelve at a time, carrying mouthsful of them, 

 away to feed their young with in the adjoining nests. 



t Colonel Russell says he has known young Sparrows to be fed with ripe wheat, 

 which he was able to prove the old birds had to go half a mile for.— Field, June 22, 

 1878. 



% Several continental naturalists include the cockchafer in the Sparrow's food ; but 

 I think that most likely the chovy (Phyllopertha) is intended as well. Professor New- 

 ton (Yarrell, British Birds, Part X, p. 92) and Mr. H. Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, I, p. 

 211) tell us that the Sparrow eats " chovies," P. horticola, and the former says he has 

 seen their mouths literally crammed with them ; and Mr. John Curtis says that he has 

 known of Sparrows gorging themselves to such an extent with, "chevies" as to he 

 unable to fly (Farm Insects, pp. 220, 510). Professor Newton says it begins to come 

 out of the ground towards the end of May, and the perfect insect carries on its rav- 

 ages until July (Professor Newton, in litt.). 



