424 journal of the royal horticultural society. 



Summary. 



In the present space it is impossible to enter fully on this 

 important national matter, but still we find, in addition to what 

 all concerned know too well already of the direct and obvious 

 losses from sparrow marauding, that there is evidence of the 

 injurious extent to which they drive off other birds, as the 

 swallows and martins, which are much more helpful on 

 account of their being wholly insectivorous ; also that, so far 

 from the sparrow's food being wholly of insects at any time of 

 the year, even in the young sparrows only half has been found 

 to be composed of insects ; and of the food of the adults, it was 

 found from examination that in a large proportion of instances 

 no insects at all were present, and of these many were of kinds 

 that are helpful to us or harmless. Also it is well on record 

 that there are many kinds of birds which help us greatly by 

 devouring insects, and that where sparrows have systematically 

 been destroyed for a long course of years all have fared better 

 for their absence ; and also attention should be drawn to the 

 enormous powers of increase of this bird, which under not only 

 protection, but to some extent absolute fostering, raises its 

 numbers so disproportionately as to destroy the natural balance. 



Here as yet we have no movement beyond our own attempts 

 to preserve ourselves, so far as we legally may, from sparrow 

 devastations ; but in the United States of America (on the 

 evidence of which we have given a part) the Association of the 

 American Ornithologists gave their collective recommendation 

 that all existing laws protecting the sparrow should be repealed, 

 and bounties offered for its destruction ; and the law protecting 

 the sparrow has been repealed in Massachusetts and Michigan. 

 Dr. Hart Merriam, the Ornithologist of the U.S. Board of 

 Agriculture, also officially recommended immediate repeal 

 of all laws affording protection to the English sparrow, and 

 enactment of laws making it penal to shelter or harbour it ; 

 and Professor C. V. Riley, Entomologist to the Department, 

 similarly conveyed his views officially as to it being a destructive 

 bird, worthless as an insect killer. 



In Canada, on October 6, 1888, at the annual meeting of 

 the Entomological Society of Ontario, Mr. J. Fletcher, Entomo- 

 logist of the Experimental Farms of the Department, strongly 

 advocated the destruction of the sparrow; and, in reply to the 



