416 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ing 25 per cent, may be roughly divided as follows : — Seeds of 

 weeds, 10 per cent. ; green peas, 4 per cent. ; beetles, 3 per 

 cent. ; caterpillars, 2 per cent. ; insects which fly, 1 per cent. ; 

 other things, 5 per cent. In young sparrows not more than 40 

 per cent, is corn ; while about 40 per cent, consists of cater- 

 pillars, and 10 per cent, of small beetles." . . . " Sparrows 

 should be killed for dissection in the afternoon." . . . " If the 

 sparrows are caught at night, they have digested their food in a 

 great measure." 



Some amount of good is noted by Mr. Gurney as done by 

 sparrows feeding (in conjunction with other little birds) on seeds 

 of various kinds of weeds, but the extent of benefit received in 

 this way varies greatly according to local circumstances. In 

 Hardwicke's " Science Gossip," 1883 (p. 217), Mr. A. Willis, of 

 Sandas, is noted as having made a series of examinations of 

 sparrows' stomachs in 1882, and in eighty-seven of these insects 

 were found in only eight instances. In an exhibition, by Dr. 

 Edwards Crisp, of 100 stomachs of young sparrows, before the 

 British Association at Birmingham in 1865, not 5 per cent, of 

 them contained insect food. Mr. John Cordeaux opened the crops 

 of thirty -five young sparrows of various ages, and on an average 

 found two parts of soft grain and one part of insects. 



The observations of Colonel Champion Russell, of Stubbers, 

 near Romford, Essex, record the examination of the contents of 

 the stomachs of sparrows shot over a wide extent of country 

 during fifteen years.* The following are extracts from Col. 

 Russell's remarks : — " The food in the old ones was almost all 

 corn during the whole year ; green peas were also found in them 

 in summer ; and in May and June, when corn is scarce, a few 

 wild seeds, chiefly of grass. No insect has been found by me in 

 a sparrow between September and March. I have not often 

 found one at any season (particularly between June and March) 

 in a sparrow old enough to feed itself, and have very seldom 

 found any number of insects in one, even when corn could 

 scarcely be got." 



The following remarks bear on a very important phase of 

 sparrow feeding. Colonel Russell observed : — " To prove that 

 sparrows are really useful, it is not enough to show that they 

 destroy some injurious insects, but it must also be proved that 

 * See "The House Sparrow" (Wesley & Son), pp. 22-24. 



