THE SPARROW.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 937, 25 April 1868, Page 3

THE SPARROW.

At a recent meeting of the Victorian Acclimatization Society — Mr. Levey observed that statements had been made in the newspapers of the injury done to the fruit trees by the sparrows, and wished to ask Professor M'Coy whether there was any difference between the : habits of the Chinese and English sparrow. Professor M'Coy stated that the society had introduced two species of sparrows — the house sparrow and what Mr. Levey had called the Chinese sparrow, or the sparrow which was termed in systematic books the tree sparrow. It was equally English with the house sparrow, and was as abundant there, and distinguished. by the brown colour of the head. It was, however, more widely distributed geographically, and it was more its habit to live in hedge-rows and trees than in the vicinity of houses. He had no hesitation, however, in saying that the injury done to fruit by them was absolutely insignificant compared with the benefit they did by feeding the enormous numbers of their young exclusively upon grubs, and that the produce they thus saved in the vineyard and garden was infinitely more important than any other material which they used for food for themselves. The proceedings of the French commission on the subject were some years ago brought under his notice by Mr. Edward Wilson, and that gentleman suggested that he should do what was done with such excellent results by the French commission, viz., to have several birds killed, and their stomachs exposed, so that the public might examine them and be satisfied, by positive proof, as to what they fed upon. From the investigations and discussions which had taken place on the subject, he had no hesitation in saying that the injury done by eithejr one or other of these birds was insignificant, and entirely unworthy of notice. There was no doubt that a great proportion of the injury clone to the fruit was done not by the sparrows, but by birds frugivorous in their habits. An esteemed member of this society, Colonel Champ, had tested this by watching the birds ; but the fact seemed to be overlooked, by those who spoke of the sparrows. He did not hesitate to affirm — not as a matter of sentiment, but as a matter of fact — that the visits of the birds to fruit-bearing plants were almost exclusively for the purpose of finding grubs for their young. Mr. Selwyn mentioned a case in which a gentleman found that the injury done to his fruit was caused by the native " ring-eyes." The Rev. G. Mackie said he had proclaimed war against the sparrows, but at the same time he esteemed very highly the work of this noble society. His experience was totally the reverse of Professor M'Coy's. He had watched the sparrows. He happened to have an acre and a half of ground, orchard, and a shrubbery, around the new church at South Yarra. In the beginning of the season the church, being a Gothic one, attracted the sparrows, and they found it an exceedingly comfortable home. They first found tliafc all the cherries were pierced. He had taken the precaution of personally watching them, and he had seen as many as 750 of these imported sparrows at the cherries. Out of about 1501 b. weight of cherries which were expected, they only got 61b. However, forgetting the cherries, he thought nothing more of the matter until the apricots came, and tlien they had only about two or three d6zen from trees that used to have about l§o. Then he found his vines covered with a green grub, and he made it his business to see whether master sparrow touched them. He did nothing of the kind. He took what was much better. T|hen out of some dozen plum trees, with pferhaps 300 plums upon them, they did not get six pounds weight over the whole. He had seen some four or five "ringeyes" | among the birds, but the principal depredators were sparrows. If any gentleman came down with, him he could show them some one hundred bunches of what were once grapes, but were now sucked dry. He did not wish to annoy the society, or to do anything to interfere with its operations, but he must say this, and stand upon it — that he believed Professor M'Coy himself would be convinced if ho saw one of these sparrows shot, that they ate other things than grubs. The Chairman was exceedingly sorry to hear the doleful account just given by the rev. gentleman. However, there was no doubt that, the sparrows were graminivorous, and that if he spi'ead out some dirty wheat for them, they would not touch his fruit any more. The Rev. Gr. Mackie stated that his children had been constantly feeding the sparrows with grain, but that did not prevent them touching the fruit. Mr. Routledge said, if the rev. gentleman lived in the Western District, where he was, he would be more generous to the sparrows. They woixkl be very glad to have a number of them there. He might mention, for the gentleman's information, that if he got a hundredweight of rapeseed and scattered it about, it would feed the sparrows, and would prevent them touching his fruit much. In the western district, ho had seen all the fruit eaten by native birds, and he for one would much rather see the fruit eaten by sparrows than by the other birds.