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cent, consists of caterpillars, and 10 per cent, of small beetles.” . . . “ Sparrows 
should be killed for dissection in the afternoon.” ... ‘‘If the Sparrows are 
caught at night, they have digested their food in a great measure.” 
Some amount of good is noted by Mr. Gurney as done by Sparrows 
feeding (in conjunction with other little birds) on seeds of various kinds of 
weeds, but the extent of benefit received in this way varies greatly according 
to local circumstances. 
In Hardwicke’s ‘ Science Gossip,’ 1883 (p. 217), Mr. A. Willis, of Sandas, 
is noted as having made a series of examinations of Sparrows’ stomachs in 
1882, and in eighty-seven of these, insects were found in only eight instances. 
In an exhibition, by Dr. Edwards Crisp, of 100 stomachs of young 
Sparrows, before the British Association at Birmingham in 18G5, not 5 per 
cent, of them contained insect food. 
Mr. John Cordeaux opened the crops of thirty-five young Sparrows of 
various ages, and on an average found two parts of soft grain and one part 
of insects. 
The observations of Col. Champion Russell, of Stubbers, near Romford, 
Essex, records the examination of the contents of the stomachs of Sparrows 
shot over a wide extent of country during fifteen years.* The following 
are extracts from Col. Russell’s remarks :— 
“ The food in the old ones was almost all corn during the whole year; green 
peas were also found in them in summer; and in May and June, when corn is 
scarce, a few wild seeds, chiefly of grass. No insect has been found by me in a 
Sparrow between September and March. I have not often found one at any season 
(particularly between June and March) in a Sparrow old enough to feed itself, and 
have very seldom found any number of insects in one, even when corn could 
scarcely be got.” 
The following remarks bear on a very important phase of Sparrow 
feeding. Col. Russell observed :— 
“ To prove that Sparrows are really useful, it is not enough to show that they 
destroy some injurious insects, but it must also be proved that, in their absence, 
other birds would not destroy them at least as effectually. This can be found out 
only in one way, by banishing the Sparrows from a place for some years.” 
This Col. Russell did, his place being a fair specimen of the country, that 
is, having flower and kitchen gardens, shrubberies, orchard surrounded by 
meadows, with corn-fields all round; and all birds excepting Sparrows were 
let alone. The result was, that after the almost total absence of Sparrows 
from his garden for many years, everything seemed to do better than 
elsewhere, many things much better. Young peas needed no protection from 
birds; green peas were not picked out of the pods, excepting one year in the 
fifteen, when some other birds devoured the late peas, and the gooseberry- 
buds were not picked out. 
In regard to special examination, Col. Russell noted:— 
“ Fifty old Sparrows, and Sparrows which could feed themselves, were killed 
one summer about my buildings and garden with food in their crops. This food, 
carefully examined (as in all cases, with a lens), was found to be corn, milky, green, 
and ripe; and sometimes green peas from my garden. Only two small insects 
were found in the whole number. The food in them has been much the same 
every year.” 
“ On the whole, the deduction from the food-test, during fifteen years, seems to be 
that the Sparrows are useless, and that the insects which would be given to their young 
by them, if they xvere allowed to live in numbers about my premises, would be so much 
food taken, when they most want it, from better birds which live entirely, or nearly so, 
on insects, and thus keep them, especially caterpillars, down so effectively in the 
absence of Sparrows, that, when a chance pair of these come and build, there arc few 
of their favourite sorts for them." 
* See ‘ The House Sparrow ’ (Wesley & Son), p. 22-24. 
