77 
Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
clear to the sparrows that such conduct will entail speedy 
retribution. There can be little doubt that these, noisy and 
obtrusive birds diminish, directly or indirectly, the numbers of 
many desirable species . 1 
On the other hand, it must be freely admitted that the 
sparrow does a great deal of good. For instance, it destroys 
numberless iusects, especially in the nesting season. The belief, 
however, that its young are brought up entirely on an insect 
dietary is certainly erroneous, for even when recently hatched 
they are often supplied with milky grain. Amongst the pests 
destroyed by the sparrow are wireworms, daddy longlegs, 
weevils from peas and beans, aphides, caterpillars of various 
kinds, chovies, house flies, “ blue-bottles,” “ black-beetles,” and 
white butterflies. It is unnecessary to dilate upon the injury 
caused by such insects as the wireworm, daddy longlegs, or 
chovy. In some- districts chovies, otherwise known as bracken- 
clocks or May-bugs, occasionally do immense damage, and at 
such times sparrows have been seen with their mouths crammed 
full of them. The quantity of weed seeds which the sparrow 
eats must also be placed to its credit, for in this way it helps to 
suppress such objectionable plants as charlock, corn bind-weed, 
goosefoot, knotgrass, buttercup, dandelion, chickweed and dock. 
It is evident, therefore, that there are two sides to the 
“ sparrow question,” and many good naturalists have been 
unable to decide which way the balance inclines. It can, how- 
ever, scarcely be denied that sparrows are almost everywhere 
too abundant, and, in all probability, if their numbers were 
greatly reduced, other more attractive and less mischievous 
birds would be equally efficacious in keeping the ravages of 
insects within bounds. 
As it is a prevalent belief that when a sparrow builds its 
nest in a tree it thereby becomes a Tree Sparrow ( Passer 
montanus ), it may be worth while to mention that the two 
species are quite distinct. The tree sparrow differs from the 
commoner bird in having a reddish-brown crown, two light bars 
on the wings, the cheeks white but conspicuously spotted with 
black, and a less robust shape. The sexes, too, closely resemble 
each other in plumage, whereas in the house sparrow they differ 
considerably. 
1 An instance of a sparrow attacking a willow-wren, which it seized and 
carried for some yards in the air, is recorded by Mr. J. Whitaker in the 
Zoologist for 1885, p. 263. The sparrow was driven away before its victim was 
much hurt. 
