John Henry Gurney Jr.

“ It is all very well to suppose that by eating fourteen flies a Sparrow disposes of their subsequent progeny to the tune of 280,000,000; but we know what these calculations, which look so prodigious on paper, are worth. Under ordinary conditions, how many of the two hundred million flies would reach maturity? ”

“ Sparrows are far more difficult to keep down than people, who have not tried it, suppose. Taking their nests about the time of hay-harvest is the simplest plan, and probably the most efficacious. They are very artful in avoiding traps, and after a few days' shooting at them become so wild as to be unapproachable. Nets are very little use, and poisoned grain should never be employed. ”

“ They claim that in an ordinary year, when insects are not more than usually numerous, Sparrows do more good than harm: it is exceedingly difficult to prove a negative; but I do not believe that any one who has not made a series of dissections realizes how much corn they eat. ”

“ Although it is desirable to keep them down at all times, it should be remarked that the mischief done by them at harvest-time is 20-fold greater than at seed-time, for at the latter season there are other Finches which are often much more harmful than Sparrows. ”

“ C.G. Barrett. ↑ Nor is it confined to the Martins: every bird is, more or less, driven from the vicinity of houses by the obnoxious Sparrow. For my part I would sooner see two or three Chaffinches and Nuthatches eat the crumbs which are put out of the window, than any number of Sparrows, which, by their presence, only usurp the place of better birds than themselves. ↑ Into Maine in 1858 (Gentry's 'House-Sparrow,' p. 33) . ↑ Mr. Morris is not very complimentary to Miss Ormerod, whose efforts to sift the matter in an impartial spirit deserve different recognition. ”