THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



423 



pulsion of the sparrow in the countries of Hungary and Baden, 

 and also in the territory of Prussia ; and, nearer our own time, 

 in Maine, and near Auxerre in France. 



With regard to the three first named, a record will be found 

 in The Times newspaper for August 21, 1861. This gives a 

 translation from the French paper, the Moniteur, of a report on 

 four petitions relating to preservation of small birds, which had 

 been presented to the French Corps Legislatif. The report con- 

 tains much information, but in respect to the emigrations of 

 the sparrow because the bird was aware of the plots that were 

 being laid against its safety, the statements cannot be said to 

 carry any weight. The following extract is inserted, as it is 

 important to agriculturists to have a correct copy of the baseless 

 statements they are sometimes called on to believe. The 

 passage is as follows : — " Now, if the facts mentioned in the 

 petitions are exact, according to the opinion of many this bird 

 ought to stand much higher than he is reputed. In fact, it is 

 stated that a price having been set upon his head in Hungary 

 and Baden, the intelligent proscrit left those countries ; but it 

 was soon discovered that he alone could manfully contend 

 against the cockroaches and the thousand winged insects of the 

 lowlands, and the very men who offered a price for his destruc- 

 tion offered a still higher price to introduce him again into the 

 country. . . . Frederick the Great had also declared war against 

 the sparrows, which did not respect his favourite fruit the 

 cherry. Naturally the sparrows could not pretend to resist the 

 conqueror of Austria, and they emigrated ; but in two years not 

 only were there no more cherries, but scarcely any other sort of 

 fruit— the caterpillars ate them all up — and the great victor on 

 so many fields of battle was happy to sign peace at the cost of a 

 few cherries with the reconciliated sparrows." 



With regard to the destruction and consequent results stated 

 to have occurred in Maine and near Auxerre, at present our very 

 best endeavours have failed to find that the statement of this 

 having occurred rests on any authoritative basis ; and the only 

 definite notice of the subject which we have found is that in 

 the neighbourhood of Auxerre there was an injudicious destruc- 

 tion of small birds generally, and not only of Passer domesticus.* 



* See "The House Sparrow at Home and Abroad," by Thomas G. 

 Gentry, p. 26. Philadelphia, 1878. 



