The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2130, 4 March 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1870.

The meetings of the Committee of the Acclimatisation Society arc sometimes enlivened with conversations respecting the habits and usefulness of birds and animals, that cannot well be reported as part of the official business. They often take place before or after the routine work of the Committee is gone through, and frequently form the basis for future plans of operation. It has struck us that larger and more frequent meetings of the Society, where such free and easy table-talk was permitted, might tend to interest much larger numbers in their work, and be the means of securing more general support from the public. In the absence of these opportunities for oral communications, a few occasional remarks through the Press on the hints thrown out form but an imperfect substitute. Yesterday, when the work of the day was pretty nearly through, the wants of the gardener and agriculturist for some means of checking the increase of destructive insects was brought under notice, and it was shown that the natural check upon the excessive development of insect life is insectivorous birds. This led to a discussion as to which species would be the most advantageous to introduce, what substitutes there are in the Province, and what difficulties the Society have to contend with. The weight of evidence as to usefulness as an insecteater was in favor of the sparrow, although the native bird the wax-eye was highly spoken of. The merits of both these active species were canvassed, and it was admitted that they had their drawbacks, notwithstanding the immense advantages derivable from their services. The partiality of the wax-eye for stolen fruit was not denied —indeed it was shown on unmistakeable evidence that its fondness for cherries was so great that it fairly shared the produce with the gardener unless precaution was taken to protect the fruit against its attacks. A similar charge may be brought against the sparrow, for there is not among birds a greater or a bolder thief, nor on the other hand a greater benefactor, than the house sparrow, the Fringilla domestica of LiNN/EUS. For reasons that will be shortly explained, we think it is better that these little drawbacks should he well and widely kriown, in order that there may bo intelligent cooperation on the part of the public in the work of the Acclimatisation Society. We have not at hand at this moment any of the late admirable publications on the habits of birds, but we do not know a timer picture of sparrow life and habits than that given by Knapp in his “Journal of a Naturalist.” We may pass over his remarks on its fecundity, art and ingenuity in nest-building, its courage and perseverance in foraging, and its predatory habits when insect life is dormant, and it -is impelled to seek provender about the barn door and corn stack. But it is these acts of thievishness on the part both of the sparrow and wax-eye that come immediately under the observation of the greater number of persons interested. They see them feeding on the developed fruit and grain, and immediately pronounce sentence of death upon them, not knowing that without their keen appetites for insect food when the trees were in bloom, and before the fruit was set, probably there would have been no fruit for anyone to eat. So deeply rooted is the prejudice against these birds that as soon as the introduction of sparrows is mentioned many persons are found who threaten to destroy them by all means in their power. Everybody knows they did this in France, and having paid the penalty in the utter destruction of crops through insect ravages, they are now trying to repair the damage done by endeavors to entice small birds back again. Mr Knapp says of sparrows :

1 have called them plunderers, and they are so; they are benefactors likewise, seeming to be appointed by nature as one of the agents for Keeping from undue increase another race of creatures, and by their prolificacy they accomplished it. In spring and the early part of the summer, before the corn becomes ripe, they are insectivorous, and their constantly increasing families require an increasing supply of food. We see them every minute of the day in continual progress, flying from the nest for a supply, and returning, on rapid wing, with a grub, a caterpillar, or some reptile ; and the numbers captured by them in the course of these travels are incredibly numerous, keeping under the increase of those races, and making ample restitution for their plunderings and thefts. Against their attacks on fruit trees, it is possible to guard by various devices ; but as one of the members of the Committee remarked of the waxeye, those ravages, except in certain instances, could not be so very destructive when the price at which their favorite cherries; can be bought in the market is considered, and a light net thrown over the tree is an effectual safeguard. It is because the aeclimati-

sation of the sparrow would prove a great sendee that we think it needful to let its true character be known, otherwise there may be those who, from pre-conceived notions of their destructiveness, would, with the best intentions, undo all the good the Society attempted by taking means for their destruction.