76 
Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
milky condition, and when fully matured. At this last-named 
period a quantity of grain is wasted by being shaken out on to the 
ground by the birds, in addition to the amount actually consumed. 
At this time, too, numbers of sparrows which live for the 
greater part of the year in towns are tempted to visit the fields, 
their grimy appearance proclaiming their usual haunts. It 
is no exaggeration to say that bushels of grain are pilfered from 
a single field, especially from the vicinity of the hedgerows. 
Not content with this allowance, the corn is further laid under 
contribution, for it is taken from the stack at threshing-time, 
from poultry and pheasant food, and lastly from the granaries 
of our docks and large towns, where greedy sparrows may 
sometimes be found ruptured or suffocated by the excess of food 
with which they have gorged themselves. They are also con- 
stantly on the watch for scattered, and therefore useless, grain 
from the nose-bags of horses and amongst their droppings. It 
is evident, then, that an enormous amount of corn is consumed 
by the myriads of sparrows with which the country is infested. 
In gardens the sparrow finds full scope for its destructive 
propensities in devouring peas, of which it is very fond, as well 
as a few gooseberries and cherries. In the most mischievous 
way, too, it pulls to pieces the flowers of the crocus, dahlia, 
primrose, polyanthus, hepatica, heartsease, wisteria, the shoots 
of pinks and carnations, the pods of the laburnum, and the 
blossom of fruit trees. It also does considerable damage to 
beds of young radishes and lettuces, besides levying toll on the 
grass seeds sown on lawns. Another source of annoyance is its 
habit of destroying thatch by burrowing into it, and of building 
its great untidy nest, constructed externally of straw, hay, 
string, rags, paper, or other rubbish, snugly lined with feathers, 
in spouts, ornamental trees, or other situations where it is any- 
thing but desirable. In the nesting season, moreover, it exhibits 
another evil habit, one that appears an unpardonable crime to 
anyone even slightly interested in bird life. For, not content 
with appropriating the nests of martins for roosting-places in 
winter, it takes possession of them in summer, and, after stuff- 
ing a handful of straw into them, proceeds to lay its eggs and 
bring up its family. The robbery is of such frequent occur- 
rence that pitiable accounts of the consequent diminution in 
the number of martins have been written by many observers, 
including Colonel Russell, who, with Mr. J. H. Gurney, has so 
ably chronicled the misdeeds of the sparrow. This vile habit of 
dispossessing the martins is much more developed in some 
districts than in others, but there are few places where traces of 
it cannot be observed. No effort should be spared to make it 
