SPARROW PIES AND STEWS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 71, 13 March 1914, Page 7

SPARROW PIES AND STEWS.

LABORERS' NEW DISHES. In certain English places, especially near towns, a new source of food is being exploited. At one stackyard after another you may see village laborers stretching fold-nets for sparrows, and the birds are being caught simply for food. They keep down the butchers' bill. Tho number of sparrows is now immense, probably greater than it ever has been. The regular winter population of one smia.il staekvard near London is estimated by the farmer at over These- 2000 mouths he fills largely with his grain. The snarrows have completely driven away almost all other varieties of birds except a few finches. The sparrow is said by the trappers to make an excellent stew, or pie, or soup. It is a clean feeder, subsisting all the year, except for .a month in th*> spring, on grain, and it takes from the farmer an enormous toll. Considering the enormous population of sparrows, it is not surprising that this source of iood is being tapped, although it willbo immensely regrettable if the practice, which is chiefly noticeable near London and Birmingham, is extended to any other 6mall birds.