THE MALIGNED SPARROW.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1365, 16 February 1912, Page 8

THE MALIGNED SPARROW.

ClffiCK OX THE SCOTCH THISTLE.

Farmers in Now Zealand will l;o .surprised to hear that but tor tile sparrow lliL'.V would long ago have, been forced to gi\e up their Holding*. Still, iiecortlinir to Air. Jas. Jiuoklaiid, a well-known authority, tnat would liave Uvn the ca.».e. In a recent address in defence of birds, -Mr. ljuckiaiul is reported as having said:—

"That formidable imported weed, the variegated Scotch thistle, threatened at one time to overrun the whole of New Zealand. Where, it had once fairly established itself it seemed well-nigh impossible to eradicate it; and it was spreading with the speed of scandal. .Much time ami mouey were spent in cutting otf the plant close to the ground and in pouring turpentine upon me scumps, out rna wind-driven clonus of thistledown, which were planting the seeds far and wid», grew yearly denser and more irtqueut. At length tho fields became a thicklypaefced growth of prickly plants, which nothing could face. The sparrows took to eating the seed. In tens of thousands they fed on it, giving it the preference of all other hard food, and the weed was conquered. To-day, in New Zealand, the sparrow is looked upon as an impudent thief, without a redeeming feature in its character. JN'o one, of course, can say

what would happen if the sparrow was dismissed from New Zealand, but it is as certain as anything in this world can be that the Dominion would be again overrun with caterpillars and thistles. As it is, the £00(1 (]„. sparrows do must far outweigh the mi-chief which is laid to their charge. This statement receives the amplest confirmation in the beautiful harvests with which New Zealand is blessed. Never were the sparrows mere numerous, never the complaints against them more bitter; yet the yield of grain is without precedent. The growling of the New Zealand farmer at the sparrow, again, justifies Virgil's complaint of the 'Miserly husbandman.* Jfi.-erly, indeed, and blind. Not a grain will he give the bird which has laboured unceasingly for 11 long months to free the soil from grubs: but whole fields of wheat to the caterpillar! In Australia n plaguo of grasshoppers periodically visits the paddocks t»,devour the crops. But the ruin they, would otherwise bring on the farmer is checked V large (locks of glossy ibis, spoonbills, cranes, and other native birds. It has been computed by an eminent naturalist tint a flock of 200,0(10 of these .saviours will .consume in a single day 25 tons of grasshoppers. Tt is for this rfn'on that the people of the Commonwealth view with such crave apprehension the continued slaughter of native birds, for their loss i<« rendering the country ever more prone to the plague? of grasshoppers."