77^1? Birds of India. 
103 
iiianinials ami reptiles; the vultures which eat carrion ; and the birds which 
feed largely on fruit, grain, or fish. How are these to be regarded ? This 
is a question which can be satisfactorily answered only by considering each 
species separately, and ascertaining the nature of its food at different stages 
of its existence, and under various conditions, as, for example, in seasons of 
drought or excessive rainfall, or at times when the country is invaded by 
some insect pest, such as the locust. Even when we have succeeded in 
ascertaining this, we are by no means always able to say whether the bird 
in question is a friend or foe. I,et us, for example, suppose that the species 
under observation lives chiefly upon grain crops, but that it feeds its youn.g 
on harmful caterpillars. The catetpillar is a voracious creature, which 
consumes several times its own weight of food in tlie course of a day. 
Thus, the devouring of a caterpillar is a work of merit, which will out- 
weigh the injury done by eating a considerable number of food grains, but 
who is to say how many food grains go to a caterpillar.' 
Thk Sparrow. 
Take the common Sparrow — a bird which lias, of late, come in for 
much abuse in the columns of The Times. It is of great iniportauce to 
determine the policy to be adopted towards him, for he has spread himself 
over the greater part of the world. In India he is almost as abundant as in 
England. If the question: Friend or foe.' were determined by votes, I 
fear that the pushing little fellow would be condemned b}' a large majority, 
but I am not at all sure that his condemnation would be just. 
We must bear in mind that the vSparrow, as his scientific name, Passer 
domesticus, suggests, is a bird of towns rather than of the open country. 
Now a town Sparrow cannot do much damage to the crops, unless, of 
course (as mauj' London vSparrows are said to do), he takes a holiday in the 
country at a time when the corn is ripening! 
Sparrow Nksti.ing.s. 
We must not forget that young vSparrows in the nest are fed chiefly 
on insect food. L,ast year I placed in a cage in the verandah some baby 
Sparrows taken out of a nest in the pantry of my bungalow. The parents 
soon found them out, and fed them through the bars of tlie cage. I was 
able to satisfy myself that the young were fed largely on green caterpillars, 
which I believe were captured in the kitchen-garden. In each beakful of 
food carried to the young birds there were not less than three of these 
caterpillars. By watching the number of times food was taken to the cage, 
I calculated that the hen, for she does the lion's share of the feeding, 
brought in something like 540 insects (chiefly caterpillars) per diem to her 
biood. She fed them on this diet for nearly three weeks, so that the young 
ones before leaving the nest had swallowed between them several thousands 
of caterpillars. 
Now, we know that the rearing of a family seems to be the noru,-al 
condition of a Sparrow, so that this species performs a ver}' great service to 
