SPARROWS. 
101 
I have also received from Prof. Riley, Entomologist of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, U. S.A., a paper published by him in the 
‘ Northern Tribune ’ (April 26th, 1888), containing the substance of a 
communication submitted to the Biological Society of Washington, 
regarding contents of stomachs of Sparrows. 
Under this description “ is included not only what is taken from the 
crop, but that taken from the gullet and mouth.” 
From the length of the paper—which, besides the anatomical 
investigations, includes a very large amount of careful scientific and 
practical observations—I cannot give it here ; but the result of the 
whole is conveyed very plainly in the title under which the paper is 
published :— 
“ The British Pest. 
“ Worthlessness of the Sparrow as an Insect-killer.” By Prof. 
C. Y. Riley, Entomologist Agricultural Department. 
In Canada, at the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of 
Ontario at Ottawa, Mr. J. Fletcher, the Dominion Entomologist, took 
occasion to refer to the injuries inflicted by the English Sparrow, 
whose destruction he strongly advocated; and the Hon. C. W. Drury, 
Minister of Agriculture, who attended the meeting as head of the 
Agricultural Department of Ontario, expressly to show the importance 
attached by the Government to the work of this Society, stated in 
reply to Mr. Fletcher “ that this destructive bird was no longer 
UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE Act OF PARLIAMENT RESPECTING 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS, AND THAT EVERYONE WAS AT LIBERTY TO AID IN 
reducing its numbers.” This on October 6th, 1888. 
In South Australia, where the Sparrows are a grievous evil, the 
Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society are taking the matter up 
by offering prizes and rewards for its wholesale destruction. On 
November 12tli, 1888, Mr. Albert Molineux, Member of the Society 
and Editor of the ‘Garden and Field,’ and a valued correspondent 
of my own, forwarded the following note of arrangements :— 
“ Sparrow Destruction. —At a meeting of the Sparrow Destruction 
Sub-Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society, held on Wednesday, 
November 7th, it was resolved to supplement the already liberal prizes 
to be offered at the Autumn Show for Sparrows’ heads and eggs. The 
prizes consist of £2, £1 10s., £ 1, 15s., 10s., and 5s., for the largest 
number of heads, and the same amount for the largest number of 
eggs. The Sub-Committee having received a sum of £5* from Miss 
Eleanor A. Ormerod (Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agricultural 
* I am unwilling to publish my own name connected with any trifling contribu¬ 
tion in furtherance of any object, but in this case I have done so, as the strongest 
way in which I could show my belief of the urgent need of action. 
