THE SPARROW ABROAD. 
i8s 
parties appointed to pay a bounty on all sparrows killed, as well as on all nests 
and eggs destroyed, thereby helping to free the land from an evil as quickly as 
possible, before we lose too many of our most beautiful and useful insect-eating 
native birds, which are a blessing to the farmer, gardener and fruit-grower, and all 
who depend on them for a subsistence. 
In New Zealand also the sparrow has his friends and his 
■enemies. Here is a note from the Neiv Zealand Herald of July 
5th 
I observe in yours of the 17th June, that some Wanganui gentleman laid 
poison on one day, and the following morning he picked up one sack and a-half 
of dead sparrows. They were ordinary corn sacks. I also observe in the Auck- 
land Weekly News that your Auckland farmers are in favour of protecting these 
delicious birds, as they are doing more good than harm. I may say that if any 
•of them would come down and try their hand at grain growing in this district they 
would alter their tone, as I can speak by experience for many years. I should be 
glad if the Wanganui gentleman would give his recipe for poisoning through 
your columns (unless he values it as an article of sale) as he would be a bene- 
factor to a large number of colonial settlers. 
Oaonui, Opunake. G. W. Gane. 
Are we to suppose that the harmless sparrow of Auckland 
becomes mischievous when he gets to Wanganui, or that the 
miscreant of Oaonui reforms his evil habits on arriving at Auck- 
land ? 
Leaving this side of the sparrow’s character, we may call 
attention to a note by Mr. G. D. Haviland in Nature of August 
25th. Referring to his destruction — too familiar to all of us — 
•of the “ flowers that bloom in the spring,” especially crocuses 
and primroses, Mr. Haviland tells of a tame sparrow which had 
a great antipathy for purple. “ It was brought up in a room, 
but not, or seldom, caged. It lived four or five months. A 
piece of blue paper placed over its food would cause it to hesi- 
tate, though if hungry it would eventually draw the paper aside ; 
a person coming into the room wearing a blue dress would 
make it quite wild, and a habit of mischievously pecking at a 
certain part of the wall of the room was successfully stopped by 
hanging a piece of blue paper there.” 
The attacking of spring flowers by sparrows is no doubt 
the result of their fondness for the succulent bases of crocus 
blossoms and the sweet stamens of primroses, and is not caused 
by any fondness for colour; but a letter from Kensington, signed 
E. J. Hipkins, published in the Daily Chronicle for Sept. 5th, 
supports Mr. Haviland’s statement. The writer sa)’s : — 
This antipathy as well as attraction for certain colours I have noticed with 
sparrows I have kept. The first sparrow, a hen, would on seeing scarlet show 
painful signs of distress and faint away, and, although a courageous and fearless 
bird in every other respect, she would always show' the same symptoms during the 
ten years she lived with me. The other two sparrows were cock birds, and 
the first of these had a fondness for blue, selecting that colour from a heap of 
coloured wools for his rough weaving, and preferring to sleep on anything blue, 
whether it was a duster or his mistress’s petticoat. One of his especial delights 
•was to play with a pack of cards by candle-light, and there again he invariably 
selected the black cards, carefully avoiding the red and court cards ; but of these 
he showed no fear, merely avoidance. I have also noticed when feeding the 
out-door sparrows from an upper window, they fly away if I wear a red jacket, 
-while my blue one inspires them with confidence. 
