6
And the same applies more or less to New Zealand[1] and Australia [2].
It is almost as difficult to guess the value of the corn which Sparrows consume annually in England as to estimate the harm which might be done by the caterpillars with which they feed their young; but I believe one Sparrow will eat 5000 grains of corn in a year at any country farmstead; and this conjecture is not arrived at, as Mr. Morris supposes, from the fact of 20 or 25 grains having been occasionally found in a Sparrow in November, but from counting the grains and writing down the results of very numerous dissections at all seasons of the year.
Mr. Morris is not accurate in one of his quotations: I did not say that Sparrows ever worked " their way through a whole field in regular progression" ('Sparrow-Shooter,' p. 6). What I said was that Sparrows might "be seen sticking to the gradually lessening square of corn until all the field is cut" ('The House-Sparrow,' p. 4), i. e., on the day when the farmer mows it with his reaping-machine.
- ↑ The latest champion of the Sparrow, Mr. Theodore Wood, who writes sensibly about it, speaking of America and New Zealand, says : " So far from rendering itself of service, it has become an unmitigated pest" ('Our Bird Allies,' p. 173). This testimony coming from such a man as Mr. Wood, an avowed upholder of the Sparrow, is strong, but not one whit stronger than it ought to be. Concerning Great Britain, Mr. Wood says that he has made experiments (l. c. p. 150), and considers that Sparrows do more good than harm. His dissections have led him to a different conclusion from mine; but, if he continues them long enough, I believe he will come round in this matter; and I am sure (from the many I have examined) that a pair of Sparrows do not supply their young with anything approaching 30,000 caterpillars (pp. 161, 179) during the breeding-season, unless it be in some very exceptional locality.
- ↑ Cf. 'Field,' Nov. 26, 1881, and Dec. 30, 1882.
