IS THE SPARROW USEFUL?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3017, 13 October 1908, Page 7

IS THE SPARROW USEFUL?

' Sir James Crichton- Browne sends to the London "Times" a letter in ■ defence of the sparrow. "Ihold i'.o brief," he says, "for the sparrow, and have often heard him - denounced as a mischievous marauder, but I should like to see justice done to him. There is another side to the disparaging picture of him painted by Mr Rider Haggard. "Only ten days ago 1 received, in my capacity as president of the Society for the Destruction of Vermin, a v very able defence of the sparrow from a neighbour of Mr Rider Haggard in. the Eastern Counties, Mr Joseph P. Nunn, of Royston. That gentleman has had the sparrow under ■ close and special observation for sixteen years, and his conclusion is that he is the most valuable of all our indigenous birds, being a great consumer of the seeds of harmful weeds, a persistent destroyer of the eggs of *• various insects, and a good flycatcher. "In acknowledging Mr Nunn's letter and interesting pamphlet," adds Sir James, "I suggested to him some observations that would verify or disprove his assertion that the sparrow is an expert and diligent flycatcher, moi'fi useful in this line than the swallow or the martin, and I recommended that these observations should be submitted to Dr. Monckton Copeman, the highly skilled chairman of the Departmental Committee "»which has been appointed by the President of the Local Government Board to enquire into the part played by flies in the spread of disease."