584 
streets of our cities be again made dis- 
agreeable throughout the earlier sum- 
mer, the shade-trees swept of their 
Ieaves, and the parks and gardens dis- 
figured, through the ravages of count- 
less hosts of measure-worms? Must 
we give up, too, all hopes of being able 
to rear among us, in these birds, an 
effectual check and safeguard against 
those pests of our orchards, the can- 
ker-worm, the caterpillar, and the cur- 
culio? ‘These were the questions we 
asked of ourselves, with inward mis- 
givings, when we heard of our learned 
friend’s bill of indictment against the 
sparrow. These questions we are now 
able to answer to our entire satisfac- 
tion, after a full examination into all 
the facts of the case. 
We find that if, at certain times, the 
sparrows do inflict some harm, the 
good they also do at all times far ex- 
ceeds their mischief. We find, too, 
that if, at different periods, various peo- 
ple and countries, in short-sighted 
anger at the depredations of the spar- 
row, and unmindful of the benefits it 
was constantly conferring in its de- 
struction of injurious insects, have 
waged war upon it, they have bitterly 
atoned in after years for their fatal 
mistake in thus exterminating their real 
friends. Hungary, Baden, Prussia, and 
different districts of France, have each 
in their turn learned, by a dear-bought 
experience, that they could not do with- 
out the sparrow. 
We find that the English ornitho- 
logical writers are either silent as to 
the mischievous character of the spar- 
row, or, if they refer to it, declare that 
the benefits it confers more than com- 
pensate for the grain it devours. To 
these writers we shall refer again. 
Again we find that the French gov- 
ernment have made very thorough and 
careful investigations into the whole 
subject of birds useful to agriculture ; 
and the report from their commission 
is most conclusive, and in favor of our 
friend the sparrow, who is now pro- 
tected from molestation in France by 
stringent laws. 
We find, in the next place, that, 
The European House-Sparrow, 
[May, 
in several well-recorded instances, the 
wholesale destruction of these birds 
has been immediately followed by ca- 
lamitous consequences to agricultur- 
ists. Noxious insects, the rapid repro- 
duction and increase of which man was 
totally unable to prevent, and against 
which he was powerless, but which 
the sparrow had kept in check, multi- 
plied to a frightful extent, and swept 
before them the vegetables of the gar- 
den, the grass, grain, fruit-trees, and 
vineyards. Wherever this has hap- 
pened, men have been at last only too 
glad to reintroduce the sparrow ; con- 
tent to put up with the liberties he 
took in their gardens and wheat-fields 
for the sake of the greater good he 
alone could do them in the destruc- 
tion of their insect pests. 
In the last place, we find that, brief 
as has been the experiment of their 
naturalization in this country, it has yet 
been long enough to give promise of 
one important result, which could be 
obtained, so far as we know, in no 
other way, namely, the extermination 
of the measure-worm, which has been 
so destructive to the foliage of the shade- 
trees, especially the maple, in our larger 
cities. 
The English ornithologists who are 
most decisively favorable to the spar- 
row are Bewick, Mudie, Selby, Yarrell, 
Thompson, and Macgillivray. They 
are each and all of the very best au- 
thority, careful, well-informed, and thor- 
ough masters of the science. We can- 
not, in the narrow limits of our article, 
quote from them at any length, and 
can only here refer, in passing, to other 
British ornithologists like White of 
Selbourne, Montagu, and many others 
whose silence as to any misdeeds of the 
sparrow is conclusive proof that they 
either did not admit their existence or 
did not attach to them any importance. 
Bewick, than whom no better authority 
can be cited, informs us that a single 
pair of sparrows, during the time they 
were rearing their young, had been 
known to destroy four thousand cater- 
pillars weekly ; not to mention butter- 
flies and other winged insects. 
