EMIGRANT SPARROWS.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5159, 30 July 1885, Page 2

EMIGRANT SPARROWS.

The sparrows, which Jess than twenty years ago were introduced into South Australia, in the hope that they would wage war against the devouring army of grubs, appear to have developed new tastes. Finding themselves in " a good land and a large," with no winged foes to molest them, and comparatively few human beings, and where bountiful Nature provides an unlimited supply of all manner of earth's fruits, they have quickly developed a decided preference for vegetables ; and abjuring their wonted carnivorous habits, have become almost entirely frugivorous. Despising the swarms of grubs and insects, they now ravage the gardens. In the summer and autumn mouths grapes, cherries, and figs, peaches and plums, nectarines, pears, and apples, young peas, and cauliflowers, afford them pleasant recreation, while at all seasons the cornfields and grass-lands supply them with ample stores. Wheat and barely, lucerne grass, seed,.buds— nothing comes amiss to these omnivorous colonists. Under these favorable circum*stances they have increased and multiplied at a most alarming rate. The original fifty, whose arrival was so joyously hailed, now number their descendants by millions, and the unhappy farmers, who had hoped to find them useful allies, are driven to despair. Scarecrows are .useless, guns, traps, nets, and poison are all in vain, for the victims are few and the survivors are legion—and such a prolific legion ! The "sparrow question" is one of the most practical and perplexing which the Melbourne Government is now striving to solve, but apparently it is beyond its powers. Many of the sufferers have been summoned to give evidence as to the amount of damage done by the sparrows, and the result proves them to be an ia« finitely worse plague than either blight or caterpillar. One man tells how in tea days they cleared his vineyard of a ton and a half of grapes, and stripped five fig-trees which had been loaded with fruit. Another had lost £50 of fruit from a comparatively small garden. A third had fifteen acres of lucerne grass destroyed. A fourth had to sow his peas three times, and each time the sparrows devoured them. A multitude of similar. eases are reported.

The story of a miser who faced death by burning rather than tear himself from his hoardings comes from New York. A fire broke out recently in one of the streets of that city, and soon a whole block of buildings was burning. The lives of most of inmates of the house had been saved by the firemen, who, in the discharge of their duty, went up to the top floors; and here it was they encountered the unusual spectacle of a man who obstinately refused to escape from it. This singular person was a collector of curiosities, old books, and pamphlets, which, with accumulated wealth of years, he hoarded up in his room. While the fire was blazing fiercely around and below him he remained unmoved, and when a rescue was attempted by a ladder raised to the window, the fireman who leaped into a chamber discovered* him id the midst of smoke and flame sitting on the floor, with his treasures collected around him. He positively refused to move. When the fire was subdued the man was found alive, but somewhat badly injured. . .

There are days when the wind Bear* and chills, when the sky has a V doleful * under-roof of grey," when distances are dingy, when there is gloom, without grandeur and mire without mildness, and when every prospect is certain to dis*. please. There are fortunate days again when every place has a beauty, and erery accident of the changeful sky tends to enhance it. There are Emerson's.

" —charmed days When the genius of Gtod doth flow j lfae wind may alter twenty ways; A tempest cannot blow; It may blow north, it still is warm; Or South, it still is olear ; Or east, it imells like a clover farm; Or west, no thunder fear."

Professor (to class in mineralogy) - " Can you recall a mineral occuring in th* liquid form?" Philosophical student " Milk; because it cornea in quarts." g| "Bough on CoBHs.»-Ask for Well* Bough on Corns." Quick relief, complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions.— Kempthorne Prosaer and Co., Agents, Aaok* land, "%