340 



The House-Sparrow. 



The sparrow does most damage during the few weeks before 

 harvest. Thousands of adult birds and young of the season 

 feed upon the ripening grain and live almost entirely in the 

 fields, deserting the village and farm homesteads for a time. 

 Later they live mainly round human habitations, taking toll of 

 grain from the stacks and poultry yards. 



The destructive practices of sparrows are not confined to the 

 consumption of grain crops. They are almost equally damaging 

 to garden produce, apparently taking a delight in stripping 

 gooseberry and red currant bushes of their buds, tearing in 

 pieces various brightly coloured flowers, such as crocuses, prim- 

 roses, and violets, eating the young shoots of carnations in winter, 

 and pulling up rows of newly-sown peas in spring and summer. 



Ricks and thatch are damaged by them, and rain-water pipes 

 are frequently blocked by their nests. 



It may reasonably be asked if nothing can be said in favour 

 of the sparrow. Examination of young birds in the nest, and 

 those recently fledged, has shown that they feed partially upon 

 caterpillars, beetles, and other insects. The amount of their 

 food consisting of insects is, however, not more than 50 or 60 

 per cent., and then only for a short period of their early life. 

 The extent of their usefulness in this respect is, I think, not 

 sufficient justification for maintaining the vast numbers which are 

 met with throughout the country. Especially is this view 

 strengthened when it is remembered that the sparrow drives 

 away house-martins, many warblers, and other purely insect- 

 feeding birds which would do most of the useful work carried 

 on by the sparrow if undisturbed. 



Any attempt to decrease this, or any other living pest 

 capable of rapid reproduction, must be thorough and must 

 embrace the whole of the district infested. The existence of 

 neighbouring areas where the pest is allowed to multiply un- 

 checked is a great drawback to success, and necessitates the 

 constant repetition of remedial means, often for several years 

 longer than would be the case if such unmolested areas did not 

 exist. Not only should sparrows be destroyed round villages 

 and hamlets, but attention to every isolated farmyard in the 

 neighbourhood is essential. Sparrows left to multiply on one 

 or two farms in a district soon spread over the neighbouring areas. 



