The Wail of an American Town Deserted by the Sparrows.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 8

The Wail of an American Town Deserted by the Sparrows.

The war against the sparrows has beea pushed to completion. The sparrows have entirely, dieappeaied and instead ol their chirpirg » hat have we ? Simply thousands upon thousands of caterpillar f>. One cannot walk through a grove or even along the °treets without troading oa a dozen or more of these insecie and having an equal number fall on his person. We have noticed whole sides of bui'dings covered with these little objoctia, and even the interior of our houses are not free from the incursions of the caterpillars. It is the natural result of the wholesale and barbarous destruction of our featheied friends, tha sparrows. These birds were imported to this country from, England in order to free us from the caterpillars. The magnificent elm trees on Boston Common were being destroyed by these little insects. The sparrows were brought there and the trees saved. Philadelphia was suffering in the same way, and it also secured a lofc of the sparrows, with the aame result. Soon the birds were spread over our entire land, and we enjoyed complete immunity fiom the ravage? of the caterpillars, for the most welcome food to the dingy little English sparrow is a good fat caterpillar. At first tho law protected our winged friends, but soon, with mankind' 3 usual ungratefulness, the kind offices of the sparrows were forgotten, and at the instigation of a few sourtempered, cross-grained heathens, who can see nothing good in nature, the protective laws wore removed and the vandalistic spirit of our race soon deprived the country of one of its greatest blessings. In the thinly settled regions the sparrows still survive, but in these regions, where vegetation is the more to be prized on account of ita comparative rarity, the guard o£ our trees and crop 3 is removed and the caterpillar holds possession. One can readily see the danger in which we lie. . The caterpillars will next spring be a swarm of little white and yellow butterflies, such as wo have never had before. These butterflies will lay their millions of egg?, and in summer, when the eggs are hatched, the land will be covered by such an innumerable multitude of little caterpillars that our crops and our fruit and shade trees will be ruined— completely eaten up. It is well known that none of our grains are safo from the attacks of these insects, and the peach and apricot trees are the only fruit-bearing trees which are not attacked. Unless our little sparrows come bac^ next year from the places where they have not yet been exterminated, we shall have to import another lot of birds to save us from th© miperies of a famine. — " Bethlehem, Perm., Daily Times," Sep. 21.