NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 393 
occurs nightly. I cannot think what these city sparrows are 
talking abont ; they all talk at once, so the subject of the 
conversation must be important. I could not make out that 
they had elected a chairman. They might have been debating 
who was to be elected " Lord Mayor of all the Sparrows " in 
November. Will somebody who understands sparrow -language 
kindly report the debates at these meetings ? 
Sparrows are much used for shooting matches. The price is 
2s. per dozen. Large numbers of sparrows leave London after 
harvest and go upon the stubbles to feed ; they return again 
to London during the winter months/ wdien farmers begin to 
plough in the stubble. In September there are hardly any spar- 
rows in London. After they have been caught at and thinned 
several times, they become artful, and the moment they see the 
net they cry, " Jim, jim, jim," and are off. An old Jim is as 
cunning as an old man from seeing his friends so often caught in 
the net. Sparrows are a great pest to the Zoological Gardens, 
by entering into the food houses, and especially the warm 
houses in winter. Since the establishment of the Zoological 
Gardens in 1826, nearly hfty years ago, the sparrows have been 
netted, shot, and caught at all seasons ; the nests also have been 
robbed of their young whenever and wherever they could be 
obtained. In spite of this constant war of extermination — for 
it is a war — there are probably more sparrow^s in the gardens 
at the present time than ever existed since the establishment of 
the Society. If this constant persecution or destruction of them 
had not been kept up, it would be utterly impossible to keep 
a collection of waterfowl, gallinaceous birds, or any grain-eating 
animal. So tame and impudent is this multitude of sparrows, 
that they wait in large numbers for the keepers, who go round 
to feed the various animals, and before he can leave the feeding 
trough it will be blackened by the numbers of sparrows. If 
not caught and destroyed, the poor animals in the gardens, 
especially the water-fowl, would be starved. Eightpence per 
dozen is paid for sparrow^s ; they are used as food for the 
serpents, falcons, and small mammalia, and are very useful, as 
they could not always be bought when required. J\Iany of the 
smaller animals could not exist without food of this kind. 
^ Mr. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens, does not think the sparrows oo 
away from London. Sparrows about provincial towns probably do go away 
into the stubble. Mr. Bartlett's reason for doubting the exodus is that 
sparrows are of very short flight, and if ihey did go into the country we should 
see sparrows with clean feathers on their return : this we never do, the Lon- 
don sparrow being always a smoky, dirty-looking individual. 
