8 
BIKDS. 
‘ ‘ If they did any good to the farmer at all the land near their 
haunts would he worth more to cultivate than the enormously greater 
extent of ground, where they never take an insect. But this is not 
the case ; the well-known ravages they commit on the grain, especially 
when it begins to form in the ear, are the only noticeable effects pro¬ 
duced by Sparrows near villages, houses, and roads. 
“ Sparrows also do much mischief in gardens by feeding off young 
Peas, Lettuces, &c., eating Green Peas from the pod, stripping Goose¬ 
berry bushes of their fruit-buds. 
“ The question remains whether they do good enough in gardens 
to make up for such misdeeds there. 
‘ ‘ For some years I carefully investigated the question of Sparrows’ 
food, examining that taken out of thousands, old and young, killed at 
all sorts of times and places. The general result was that the old ones 
contained little else but corn, rarely an insect. The young ones are fed 
with a great variety of food: corn, green and ripe, Green Peas, insects, 
&c. At least 95 per cent, of a Sparrow's food during its whole life seems 
to be corn." 
Further, Col. Russell points out “ that to prove Sparrows are really 
useful, it is not enough to show that they destroy some insects, but it must 
also be shown that in their absence other birds would not destroy them 
as effectively.” 
This point appears to me very important, for it is often vaguely 
objected what mischief there would be if the Sparrows were not at 
hand, a confusion which seems to arise from quite disregarding that 
in the discussion we are not using the word “ Sparrow” as a general 
term for all small birds, but simply for the one special and almost 
intolerable pest, the Passer domesticus. 
Col. Russell continues :—“ My object in letting no Sparrows live 
anywhere near my house has been partly to get a better practical test 
of their utility than any amount of examination of food in their crops. 
Sparrows having been almost absent from my place for years, if they 
took insects which other birds will not, such insects would increase, 
and the Sparrows killed there would show this. Now it has been 
quite as unusual to find an insect in an old Sparrow there as 
elsewhere. 
“ In fifty of all ages, from the time they first feed themselves, killed 
there one summer with food in their crops,— this consisted of corn, milky, 
green, and ripe, and sometimes Green Peas,—only two small insects were 
found in the whole number„ 
“ With old ones, however, eating few insects anywhere, this was not 
test enough ; but if any insects were the peculiar prey of Sparrows, and 
had increased, any nestlings there should be full of them. A pair or 
two of Sparrows have therefore generally been allowed to have a nest 
