The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1871.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1201, 27 December 1871, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1871.

.*. .... /A. cktjsade against the sparrows is being preached. It lias been stated that they are most destructive .amongst the cherries, and a letter has been publi>hed in the columns of a contemporary, containing n long extraet-fi*6m a Melbourne journal, the Leader, which gives a doleful list of the misdeeds of the sparrow, but not a single word in his favour. The sparrow has. been called a pest and a curse, and a wholesale slaughter of his kind has been recommended./ We purpose putting in a plea on behalf of these birds. We at once admit that the sparrow does, in company with his friend the chaffinch and other members of the feathered race, occasionally help himself to a little fruit aud grain or a few peas, but we contend that the good he effects by destroying larvae, grubs, and other forms of insect life which do immense damage to vegetation, more than counterbalances the mischief he does in eating fruit and grain. The quantity of insects which a pair of these birds Consume in feeding their young during the breeding season is somethiug incredible, and the good thereby effected ;in preventing the spread of what, it not checked, is indeed a pest, ought to outweigh all the bad deeds laid to the sparrow. We of course refer to the house sparrow, so common in England, and which may now daily be seen in our streets, and whose lively chirrup maybe heard, and funny antics witnessed, in almost every garden in the suburbs. Some time since a portion of the United States was devastated by an insect blight ; every means was tried without success, to stop its ravages, ijntil at length it was resolved to try what the house sparrow could do. .A number of these birds were obtained from England, they were warmly welcomed, and let loose to seek their fortune. The sparrows took kindly to their new home; they increased and Diuitiplied,and as they increased the insects that had been before the terror of the land decreased and finally disap peared." We well recollect the time when " Sparrow Clubs," the object of which was to kill as many sparrows as possible, used to exist in Englaud, and we well remember, many years since, in searching the account books of tbe overseers of a country parish, coming across a number of curious entries, nearly two hundred years old, in crabbed writing and quaint language, of which the following is a specimen: : — " Item — Payde for 12 aparrowes beds Id." Happily, the foolish notion respecting the destructiveness of Sparrows has passed away in the 'old country; men ho longer think* that they are doing a useful act in the wholesale "slaughter of the innocents," Neither is the ratepayers' money expended in paying for sparrows' heada. The statements of the Leader must be taken cum grano salts. Although a well conducted journal, it has never been favourable to the doings of the Victorian Acclimatisation Society, which was mainly established through the exertions of Mr Edward Wilson, who at that time was editor and one of the proprietors of the Argus. We well recollect with what ridicule Mr Wilson was assailed when he attempted to introduce the Murray river cod intoi the Yarra, but he persevered and! ultimately succeeded in acclimatising j in the Tarra one of the finest fish in the Southern Hemisphere. He it was, we believe, brought the sparrow^ with other English birds, into Victoria, and his efforts in the cause of acclimatisa- 1 tion have been a great benefit to that colony. But, notwithstanding, his labours and those of his friends have often been bitterly assailed, and' all sorts oi obloquy have been heaped upon, all kinds of misdeeds charged against their feathered pets. Th» is pretty nearly fte truth respecting

the crusade in Victoria against; the sparrow.. ■--'■■> k ....-""• - Has the sparrow": done as much damage to the cherries and othe r fruit ia Canterbury' aa has been represented ? We do not believe that he has. There has hitherto been no lack of the finest fruit, nor do we think there is likely to be any. The truth ia that there are some persons so ignorant and prejudiced that if they see a bird in a tree and discover the mark of its beak on any of the fruit, they forthwith come to the conclusion that the whole of the fruit crop will be destroyed, and rush into print recommending an indiscriminate slaughter of the poor birds as "pests" and "curses." ;We do not mean to say that a time •will .- not come when the sparrows will have become so numerous that it may "be necessary to thin their ranks a little, but to recommend the wholesale destruction of useful birds because they happen occasionally to take a little fruit and grain as wage in kind for their really valuable services, seems to us to be the height of folly.