The Sparrows in America.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 7

The Sparrows in America.

A mistake in acclimatisation has been made with regard to the sparrows. In many parts of' the United Stat3B tho trees are infested by two caterpillars. One, which is popularly called the canker worm, is a very near relative of our vapourer moth, and ia even more destructive In the public grounds, as well as in private gardens, almost every tree is furnished with a sort of metal pent-house extending round tho trunk, for tbe purpose of arre.si.ing the progress of the wingless females up the tree. The other belongß to tho Geometridte, and is called the epan worm or measurer worm, on account of its habit of looping the body at every step Not only is it a destructive creature, but it annoys people greatly by its habit of 'etting itself down from the tree by eilken cable, juet a-* is done by many of our leaf-roller catarpillare. But the American caterpillars are so numerous, and their cables are so strong, that they are a serious pest to passengers. About twenty years ago some American naturalists bethought themselves that the spanow, which is in the habit of feeding its young with grubs and caterpillars, would be the very bird to copa with these two pests. Accordingly, they eenfc to England tor a thousand sparrows, tiaiing their arrival so that the birds might have their noefca built and their young hatched juofc when the canker-worm and span-worm were most troublesome. But they had forgotten that the sparrow is a bird of the Old .WoilJ, and not accustomed to New World inbect-s. Again, the canker-worm was co formidable a being, with its tufts of long, straight bristly ha : is, that no sparrow could carry it off, and much less could a young snarrow swallow it. The only English biici that can eat this caterpillar is the cuckoo, a specie 3 which cannot live in America. The span- worm ia equally Bate from the sparrow. Among the leaves it is bo well hidden that the sparrow cannot find it, the bird not being adapted for hunting among the leaves and branches. Eve i when it hangs by its thread fiom the bough, the sparrow, which is a short- winged bird, is incapable of balancing itself in the air and picking off a cat "U'pillar which switjgs backwards and forwards in the breeze, and, when fearful of danger, lets itself drop for teverul inches. If the epan-worna, like the Laccadive rats, would only descend tothegiound thespariow would probably pick it up. But as it prefers to hide in tbe foliage or to wing at the cud of a thiead, no sparrow can touch it. In order that the sparrow mijht be furnished with convenient nesting places, great numbers of ornamental boxes, like little houees, were fa&tened upon the branches of the trees, mo-it of them existing at the present time. Theoe boxes which look like the cieea of cuckoo clocks, attracted my attention greatly when I took my first walk on Boston Common. An unexpected result followed the advent of the sparrows. Quarrelsome, fearless, and irrepressible, the sparrows ousted the native birds from their nesting-places, and drove them from their old haunts. When I was visiting the Boston Navy Yard, Commodore Badger called my attention to the sparrows, which were hopping and fluttering and chirping and squabbUng all over the place, regardless of the deep snow with which everything was covered, and pointed out the nesting-places of former pets which had been driven away by the sparrows and their dwellings confiscated. The sparrow has now spread all over the State,'and although it does feed its young on the small larvse in tbe spring, it has ejected the native birds which would have performed the came duty, while it does not touch the creatures for whose destruction it was introduced. That, however, is not the fault of the sparrow, but of the imperfect knowledge of the introducers, who ought to have learned that the sparrow could neither capture the epan-worm nor cope with the canker worm. Consequently it does more harm than good, ! eating grain of all kinds, and being so keen after food that to sow a grass-lawn is a task of great difficulty, the sparrows flocking to the spot and eating the seed almost before it touches the ground. A similar result has followed the introduction of the sparrow into New Zealand. Fifty birds were imported, and now their numbers may be reckoned by the million.— The Rev, J. Gr. Wood, in "Longman'a Magazine."