“THE LITTLE BRIGAND.”

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1746, 23 August 1905, Page 8

“THE LITTLE BRIGAND.”

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, June 30. Though mainly concerned with the scientific aspect of bird study, the recent Ornithological Congress brought into prominence several bird questions, in which most of us have a direct interest. The Congress, for instance, threshed out very thoroughly the question of how we ought to regard the sparrow. “Is he a much maligned bird, or does he really deserve all the hard names bestowed upon Mm P” was in plain English the question to be decided. Congress was unanimous. Mr. Sparrow and his “mission” are nothing better than feathered brigands upon whom pitiless war should be waged. Indeed, when Herr Svetozar urged the extermination of “the little brigand,” there was scarce a voice raised in dissent. Herr Svetozar does not send round the fiery cross among agriculturalists to call them to wage relentless war on sparrows because of any preconceived prejudice. He, indeed, hesitated to condemn them until he had tried in vain to persuade them to act up to the reputation some birdlovers in his country (Hungary) had given them as valuable allies in the destruction of the insect enemies of the vinyards and cornfields. He had nests of old tobacco boxes placed for them in his vinyards and among his corn, and treated them as friend's till he found that while the birds would not touch the insect pests all round their nests, they were always the first to sample the ripening fruit and corn. Their annual share of his produce was enormous. Is the sparrow any better behaved in England? Not a bit of it. Mr J. H. Gurney recently concluded an even more definite experiment than Herr Svetozar’s. Hie invited about a dozen of his friends to shoot a certain number of sparrows every week for a year, and examine their crops. The result was the following table of the sparrow’s average food throughout the twelve months: — Per cent. Corn ... ... ••• ••• 75 Seed of weeds .... ... ••• 10 Green peas ... ... 4= Beetles .... Caterpillars ... ... ••• 2 Insect® which fly ... ... 1 , Other matters ... ••• 5 The Congress must have known the tale of the “little brigand’s” felonies, for not a member rose in his defence. Au oontraire, the rook, which was also arraigned as a brigand, came out of the dock at the Congress with a really good character. Professor Herman has been making a speciality of the rook, and the exhibits of food taken from the bodies of rook® at different times in the year which be showed were highly instructive and proved conclusively that the bird devours countless insects in the autumn and early spring, at which time the individuals are hibernating, ahd “therefore whole generations of insects are destroyed just at a period when the large majority of our insectivorous birds are in their winter quarters.” Moreover, when there are mice pests there is found in the stomach of every rook an average of two mice, and three, and sometimes as many as five are occasionally found. Also Professor Herpuan* proved thftt tho r'ook pulls up cereal sprouts only when they are attacked by injurious larvae, in order to gain access to theiru The rook also devours large quantities of insects, right through the summer, and that it is only on cold or wet days that the bird is thrown on vegetable food. The summing-up was greatly in favour of the rook, even though it was admitted that the bird does cause a measure, sometimes considerable, of harm to the crops.