become an intolerable nuisance.' Much might be said here of other colonies, but the professor's prediction in regard to Australia, at any rate, has been amply verified; for we read:
'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 infinitely worse plague than either blight or caterpillar. One man tells how in ten 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 £30 worth of fruit from a comparatively small garden. A third had fifteen acres of lucern grass destroyed. A fourth had to sow his peas three times, and each time the sparrows devoured them. A multitude of similar cases are reported.'
In England the increase in the number of sparrows seems to keep pace with the increase of the population and the number of houses. Wherever a new house or cottage is built, it is no sooner inhabited than it receives its family of sparrows. In some of our colonies, however, and notably in North America, it increases with astonishing and alarming rapidity. The climate, the abundant supply of food, and other causes favour their increase.
Professor Newton says, very truly, they 'will of course oust some of the indigenous species.' This they have done in America. 'In place of many sweet songsters which used to grace and enliven our streets,' says Dr.
