Wilmington Daily Gazette

The Sparrows.

The English sparrows, the first specimens of which were brought across the Atlantic some four or five years ago, to destroy the worms and insects in the Philadelphia and New York squares and parks, are now a theme of newspaper discussion. They are increasing very rapidly all over the country, and many of our inland cities and towns are almost 'alive with them.' By some persons they are pronounced a nuisance—very mischievous as grain destroyers, and quarrelsome towards the other birds that make their homes in the gardens, in the fields, and about the premises of farmers and others. An exchange paper states that a few years ago the sparrows were introduced into Patterson, N. J., in which city and vicinity, before their advent, blue-birds, orioles, wrens, and other song birds and twitterers were very numerous, but that now none of these latter are to be seen. And the city is by no means rid of the worms and insects that they were brought there to devour. The same paper says that the English sparrows are not an insectivorous bird, but feed chiefly on grain, which they find in the winter in the droppings of horses, and in the summer in the farmers' fields. Other persons, who profess to have observed these birds closely, say in their defence, that while they may consume some grain, they render far more than an equivalent for it in ridding the fields, orchards and gardens, of the flies, currculio worms, &c., which prey upon the cereal and fruit crops. It is asserted, also, that they have completely exterminated the drop or measuring worms from the trees and shrubbery in Philadelphia, and other large cities. And so the question as to whether the sparrows are a nuisance or a blessing is still an open and a mooted one.