The best time to shoot Sparrows for dissection is between 3 and 5 in the afternoon. The crop will give a far better idea of the day's meal than the gizzard. A magnifying-glass is often a great help in making out dubious substances: the late Col. Russell considered that with a watchmaker's lens the most delicate insect might be detected in the crop of a Sparrow, and no one ever took greater pains to master the Sparrow-question thoroughly than he did, or knew more about it. Macgillivray gives a figure of a Sparrow's crop (B. B. i. plate viii.). It is to be looked for on the right side, and is generally very easy to find, being sometimes swollen with food to the size of a marble.
Sparrows are far more difficult to keep down than people, who have not tried it, suppose. Taking their nests about the time of hay-harvest is the simplest plan, and probably the most efficacious. They are very artful in avoiding traps, and after a few days' shooting at them become so wild as to be unapproachable. Nets are very little use, and poisoned grain should never be employed. Mr. Wood says that "Hawk-Kites" such as are sold in toy-shops, have been tried with success in the Isle of Thanet to scare them; they are too audacious to care much for scarecrows with us in Norfolk. Although it is desirable to keep them down at all times, it should be remarked that the mischief done by them at harvest-time is 20-fold greater than at seed-time, for at the latter season there are other Finches which are often much more harmful than Sparrows. If, as Mr. Wood remarks, farmers sowed their grain deeper (l. c. p. 184), no birds would be able to get it.
In conclusion let me propound the following argument:—Suppose that on the 31st of December, 1888,
