( 7 ) 
For many years mention lias been made, by those who consider Sparrow 
preservation desirable, of great disasters following on some not clearly de¬ 
tailed methods of extermination, or expulsion of the Sparrow in the countries 
of Hungary and Baden, and also in the territory of Prussia; and, nearer our 
own time, in Maine, and near Auxerre in France. 
With regard to the three first named, a record will be found in our own 
‘ Times ’ for Aug. 21st, 1861, p. 7. This gives a translation from the French 
paper, the ‘ Moniteur,’ of a report on four petitions relatively to preservation 
of small birds which had been presented to the French Corps Legislatif. 
The report contains much information, but in respect to the emigrations of 
the Sparrow because the bird was aware of the plots that were being laid 
against its safety, the statements cannot be said to carry any weight. The 
following extract is inserted, as it is important to agriculturists to have 
a correct copy of the baseless statements they are sometimes called on to 
believe. The passage is as follows :— 
“Now, if the facts mentioned in the petitions are exact, according to the 
opinion of many this bird ought to stand much higher than he is reputed. In fact, 
it is stated that a price having been set upon his head in Hungary and Baden, the 
intelligent proscrit left those countries; but it was soon discovered that he alone 
could manfully contend against the cockroaches and the thousand winged insects of 
the lowlands, and the very men who offered a price for his destruction offered a still 
higher price to introduce him again into the country.” .... “ Frederick the Great 
had also declared war against the Sparrows, which did not respect his favourite 
fruit the cherry. Naturally the Sparrows could not pretend to resist the conqueror 
of Austria, and they emigrated; but in two years not only were there no more cherries, 
but scarcely any other sort of fruit—the caterpillars ate them all up ; and the great 
victor on so many fields of battle was happy to sign peace at the cost of a few 
cherries with the reconciliated Sparrows.” 
With regard to the destruction and consequent results stated to have 
occurred in Maine and near Auxerre, at present our very best endeavours 
have failed to find that the statement of this having occurred rests on any 
authoritative basis; and the only definite notice of the subject which we 
have found is, that in the neighbourhood of Auxerre there was an injudicious 
destruction of small birds generally, not only of Passer domesticus .* 
Summary. 
In the present space it is impossible to enter fully on this important 
national matter, but still we find, in addition to what all concerned know too 
well already of the direct and obvious losses from Sparrow marauding, that 
there is evidence of the injurious extent to which they drive off other birds, 
as the Swallows and Martins, which are much more helpful on account 
of their being wholly insectivorous ; also that, so far from the Sparrow’s 
food being wholly of insects at any time of the year, even in the young 
Sparrows only half has been found to be composed of insects; and of the 
food of the adults, it was found from examination that in a large proportion 
of instances no insects at all were present, and of these many were of kinds 
that are helpful to us or harmless. Also it is well on record that there are 
many kinds of birds which help us greatly by devouring insects, and that 
where Sparrows have systematically been destroyed for a long course of 
years all have fared better for their absence; and also attention should be 
drawn to the enormous powers of increase of this bird, which under not 
only protection, but to some extent absolute fostering, raises its numbers so 
disproportionately as to destroy the natural balance. 
Here as yet we have no movement beyond our own attempts to preserve 
ourselves, so far as we legally may, from Sparrow devastations; but in the 
United States of America (on the evidence of which I have given a part) the 
Association of the American Ornithologists gave their collective recommenda- 
* See ‘ The House Sparrow at Home and Abroad,’ by Thomas G. Gentry, p. 20. 
Philadelphia, 1878. 
