John Henry Gurney Jr.

“ It is now four or five days since the crime was committed, and although the new spouse is perfectly at home and settled, peace, even to the extent that a sparrow enjoys it, is still a stranger to the spruce-tree nest. I think it is haunted by the discarded mate. Certainly a sparrow, that I have no doubt is she, comes to the neighbourhood, and scolds the meek-looking bride and her spouse in most savage fashion. No one resents her performance, and after a moment she goes away.
The sparrow is an autocrat, especially addicted to divorcing his partner upon the smallest pretext. ”

“ The harshest cries of our native American birds, if not always musical in themselves, seem at least to accord in some way with sounds of nature. The house-sparrow alone is entirely discordant—the one bird without a pleasing note, whose very love-song is an unmusical squeak. ”

“ We read, 'are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?' and again, 'are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?'—a proportion in favour of the larger purchase. In some countries on the Continent large numbers of small birds, including beautiful singing-birds unfortunately, are offered for sale in the poultry markets. English people, as a rule, look down on this sort of fare. A sparrow is a poor meal for a man to sit down to! ”

“ Loud cries always announce when a rabble is at work. Whether, as is declared by some observers, they drive away our native birds by this means I am not sure. I have seen them annoy the cat-bird, the robin, and the Baltimore oriole, but in each case they were put to flight by the native bird; though no doubt the experience is sufficiently disagreeable to induce either of these birds to select a more retired neighbourhood for nest-building. I once noticed the same tactics successfully applied to a cat which climbed up among the nests.
Next to the sparrow's mobbing propensity is his impudence. ”

“ Wherever a new house or cottage is built, it is no sooner inhabited than it receives its family of sparrows. In some of our colonies, however, and notably in North America, it increases with astonishing and alarming rapidity. The climate, the abundant supply of food, and other causes favour their increase.
Professor Newton says, very truly, they 'will of course oust some of the indigenous species.' This they have done in America. ”

“ The parent sparrows will begin to feed them on caterpillars when but a day old, but they seem to discontinue the diet a little time before they leave the nest, though, on the other hand, some young sparrows, which were quite ready to leave the nest, examined in Norfolk, did contain a few small caterpillars. But of this I am sure, that while very young their diet is quite as much unripe corn and vegetable matter as caterpillars. [7] Even at the age of one day a sparrow will feed its young one on a grain of ripe corn. ”

“ I agree in thinking that at this period the opinion of Colonel Russell, who continues the discussion after me, that corn forms 90% of their food, is true. At the end of March fields are sown, and sparrows show not infrequently, by their presence, that they wish to levy the usual tribute; but it is certain that where a drill is used the grain is deposited too deeply in the soil for any small birds to reach it, except skylarks, which are said to dig it up sometimes; but sparrows get the drilled barley and oats when they begin to sprout. ”

“ Sparrows should be killed for dissection in the afternoon. In adult sparrows the crop will generally give a far better idea of their day's meal than the gizzard, in which the food is so comminuted as to be with difficulty identified. If the sparrows are caught at night, they have digested their food in a great measure, and yield much less satisfactory results: the crops at that time are always empty. ”

“ It is true of sparrows, however it may be with other birds, that each one has his special alighting-places, a certain twig where he first settles, and certain others on which, as a flight of steps, he invariably proceeds to his nest. The mother of the dead infant always came to the home from the right side, and her grim tyrant does so still, but the bride selected a convenient series of twigs on the left side. ”

“ During the operations of harvest, I understand they may often be seen sticking to the gradually lessening square of corn until all the field is cut. They then transfer their attentions to the sheaves, and also divide with the gleaners what is left on the stubble. Finally, when the farmer has sold his produce, sparrows take a very large toll out of any portion of it which a purchaser may give to his poultry, as every breeder of chickens and turkeys knows very well. ”

“ And if the sparrows were all dead, it may be asked, 'Would other birds keep down these seeds and caterpillars as fully as they are kept down now?' Nineteen farmers out of twenty would say at the outset, that there can be no question at all about the matter—that sparrows do so much harm to crops, that it is impossible that any number of caterpillars upon which their young are fed, can be enough to compensate. ”

“ THE common house sparrow (Passer domesticus; fringillidæ, the finch tribe) has some enthusiastic patrons in this country among the friends of dumb animals, and it has many deadly enemies among farmers and gardeners. ”

“ A large farmer in Cheshire told his audience at a meeting last year that in his opinion sparrows, assisted by other small birds, had done the country £770,094 worth of damage in a year, reckoning a bushel per acre all over the kingdom (vide The Times, Sept. 13th, 1884, Chester Courant, Aug. 27th) . If this tremendous estimate be anywhere near the mark it may well be asked, 'Is any consumption of insects in summer likely to make amends for it?' Yet it appears to be the deduction of a careful man, made to a very sympathetic audience, who had suffered largely in their district, near Chester. ”

“ One cannot help watching bird-life, however ignoble, which goes on within sight. Sparrows have long been my neighbours, and I have observed many phases of their life—combats, brawls, forcible divorce, and persecution of the unfortunate. ”

“ And 'sparrows,' says an excellent cookery book, 'are excellent eating, if cooked in the same way as larks.' [1] Our American friends, we learn, have taken to sparrow-pie lately, thereby diminishing the number of these destructive birds, and making an agreeable addition to their bill of fare. Our friends in the country will do good all round if they do the same, and induce others to follow the example. ”

“ I have notes of sparrows occasionally feeding on the yellow Underwing, Ermine moth, and a few other insects in the perfect state, but the date at which the observation was made not having been taken down, it can only be approximately guessed at from the time at which they usually appear. Everybody must, at some time or another, have observed their clumsy efforts to catch some common butterfly. ”

“ Many of the sufferers have been summoned to give evidence as to the amount of damage done by the sparrows, and the result proves them to be an infinitely worse plague than either blight or caterpillar. ”

“ At all times stacks are a great attraction. It is said that preference is given to a wheat-stack; but sparrows are not particular so long as they can get grain. Needless to say, that threshing is a matter of the highest interest to sparrows. [5]
February and March are spent almost entirely in the vicinity of houses and farmyards, or any place where corn is to be found, unless, as previously mentioned, they are attracted to a distance by the operation of threshing. ”

“ The point at issue—and it is only by discussing it temperately that we shall arrive at the truth, and by entirely putting aside prejudice which has marked many utterances on the subject—is, Would the caterpillars and seeds of weeds, which the sparrows eat, consume, or injure, as much agricultural produce as the sparrows consume? ”

“ Sparrows do much good to the farmer, in conjunction with many other little birds, by consuming vast numbers of the seeds of weeds. I think not nearly enough has been made of this by their friends and supporters. ”

“ In young sparrows not more than 40% is corn, while about 40% consists of caterpillars, and 10% of small beetles. This is up to the age of sixteen days. Where green peas abound, as in market gardens, they form a much larger proportion of the sparrows' food than the 4% here stated. ”

“ Sparrows generally contain in their gizzards a considerable quantity of small stones, gravel, sand, brick, coal, etc., but these are only intended to grind the real food. In default of these substances they will swallow small mollusks, fragments of egg-shell, fragments of snail-shells, etc. ”

“ Once during the occupation the mother had tried to interfere, and was told unmistakably to 'mind her own business.' Several times the male audience attempted to take part—whether for or against the victim I could only guess—but were as summarily disposed of. ”

“ The gardens in our suburbs, where formerly other birds were common—or not uncommon—have now nothing but sparrows. An occasional visitor is seen—a robin, wren, or titmouse, but it disappears in a day or two. It is a belief that this is due entirely to the increase of sparrows. As Londoners, this is nearly our only grudge against them: we feed them well. [1]
↑ In severe winters a variety of beautiful strangers re-appear and appeal not in vain to our charity. ”

“ These seeds will spread from a hedge, the sides of which are not brushed with a reaping-hook in the summer, and make a field very foul; so that everyone must admit that sparrows and small birds generally do some amount of good by keeping them down. ”

“ If one-fourth of them are fed on caterpillars, we should have 22,400,000 of these destructive creatures eaten in this one county alone, every year, by sparrows. So that there is a very nice balance to adjust in a matter which the most expert observer might find difficult. ”

“ Our Northern and Eastern Birds, containing Descriptions of the Birds of the Northern and Eastern States and British Provinces, together with a History of their Habits, times of Arrival and Departure, their Distribution, Food, Song, Time of Breeding, and a careful and accurate Description of their Nests and Eggs, with a supplement from Holder's 'American Fauna,' with 30 plain and 5 coloured plates, and numerous engravings, royal 8vo, cloth, New York, 1883, £1 5s. ”

“ I understand that the result was that several thousand sparrows forfeited their lives.
↑ Some people are to be found who will even stand up for the ring-dove or wood-pigeon—a greater pest than the sparrow. ↑ But the nearly allied tree-sparrow (Passer montanus) is a well-known migrant. ↑ Mr. B. B. Sapwell remarks that when a stack has been threshed ever so far away from the yard, the sparrows in the yard have always had their crops full of the grain (in litt.) ↑ An instance of young sparrows being fed on water-beetles occurred at the beginning of August, 1884. ”

“ GAME FISHES OF THE UNITED STATES: a series of 20 magnificent paintings of Fishes and Scenery, by S. A. Kilbourne, with text by G. Brown Goode, Curator of the United States National Museum, and of the United States Fishery Commission; 10 parts, size 28 by 22 inches, 1879, £10 10s.
YARRELL (W.) History of BRITISH FISHES. Third Edition, with Figures and Descriptions of the additional Species by Sir John Richardson, C.B., with Memoir, Portrait, and 522 engravings of fishes, 2 vols., 8vo, half calf, 1859 (Pub. £3 3s.) , £2 2s. In fine condition. ”

“ Theatrum Botanicum: the Theater of Plants, or an HERBALL of a large extent, 1,755 pp., with fine engravings of plants on nearly every page, indexes and engraved title-page, folio, old calf, 1640, scarce, £5 5s.
SACHS (Julius) Text-Book of Botany, Morphological and Physiological, edited, with an Appendix, by S. H. Vines, F.L.S., numerous engravings, 2nd edition, royal 8vo, half morocco, Oxford, 1882, £1 6s. 6d. ”

“ SEBOTH (Joseph) Alpine Plants: the Text by F. Graf; with an Introduction on the Cultivation of Alpine Plants, by J. Petrasch; edited by A. W. Bennett, F.L.S. Complete set, 400 coloured plates, 4 vols., small 4to, half morocco, 1884 (pub. £5) , £4.
SELBY (P. J., F.L.S.) History of British Forest-Trees, Indigenous and Introduced, 200 fine engravings, 8vo, cloth, scarce, 1842, £2.
CONCHOLOGY, Etc.
ALDER (Joshua) and ALBANY HANCOCK, Monograph of the British Nudibranchiate Mollusca, with 82 plates, most of them coloured, complete in 7 parts, folio, boards, Ray Society, 1845-55 (pub. £9 12s.) ”

“ CARPENTER (W. B.) , assisted by W. K. PARKER and T. RUPERT JONES, Introduction to the Study of FORAMINIFERA, with 19 fine plates, folio, boards, Ray Society, 1862, £3.
ELLIS (John, F.R.S.) Natural History of the CORALLINES, and other Marine Productions of the like Kind, commonly found on the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, to which is added the Description of a large Marine Polype taken near the North Pole, by the whale fishers, with frontispiece and 39 plates, 4to, half-bound, 1755, 15s. ”

“ Vols. VII., VIII., Zone Catalogue, Mean Positions of the Stars observed in the Zones at the Argentine National Observatory, with Introduction and Precession Tables, 2 vols., 4to, 879 pp., Buenos Aires, 1884, £2 10s.
HERSCHEL (Sir J. F. W.) Results of ASTRONOMICAL Observations made during the years 1834-38 at the Cape of Good Hope, being the completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens, with frontispiece and 8 plates, royal 4to, cloth, scarce, 1847, £2 2s.
LA TOUCHE (J. D.) Geology of Shropshire, with 823 engravings, 4to, cloth, 1884, 15s. ”

“ Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, founded on the Natural Habits and Corresponding Organization of the different Families, coloured plate and 130 wood engravings, 2 vols., 8vo, cloth, 1839-40, £3 15s. ”

“ On the Kangaroo, Halmaturus luctuosus, and its affinities.—Notes on the Manatee.—Anatomy of the Passerine Birds.—Anatomy of the Musk-Deer.— Anatomy of the Chinese Water-Birds.—On the Brain of the Hippopotamus, and many other Monographs. ”