176 Life History of the House Finch. [ZOE 
female remains on the nest a good part of the time for the first five 
days after the first egg is hatched, but after that time is absent much 
more frequently and for longer intervals. By the tenth day the 
young have become very active, and are able to crawl about with 
considerable rapidity if placed on the ground. At this time the 
sheath which incloses the feathers begins to flake off, and the bird is 
covered with fine particles of this’ epitheliel case. Figure 8 repre- 
sents a feather emerging from its sheath, as seen under the micro- 
scope. The sheath, it will be observed, is cracked, and the pressure 
of the growing feather causes it to crumble or flake in fine particles. 
At the end of two weeks the bird is almost completely covered with 
feathers, and is able to fly from the nest. 
By the fruit-grower the house finch is generally looked upon as a 
great pest, and is destroyed whenever the opportunity is presented. 
Whether or not the amount of damage done by the bird is sufficient 
. to warrant keeping it seriously in check, seems to me to be still an 
open question. There is no doubt that it does destroy a very con- 
siderable amount of fruit, and I know of no real service that it ren- 
ders the horticulturist, but interfering with the balance of power in 
nature is always a dangerous experiment. Wherever it is scarce 
the English sparrow is proportionately abundant, and it seems not 
impossible that the one may supersede the other in course of time. 
If it were a matter of choice between the merry, bright-plumaged 
house finch, with his exquisite bubbling song, and the detested 
sparrow, I think that few would question the advisability of sparing 
the former. All of the more juicy fruits are eaten by the house 
finch, but cherries generally suffer most. On talking with a fruit- 
grower in Berkeley, who has an extensive cherry orchard, he in- 
formed me that the number of cherries destroyed by ‘‘linnets” is 
comparatively trivial, although the birds are very numerous. Most 
of the fruit lost was in the tops of the trees, where it is least easy to 
pick. Until the subject has received more extended and more 
careful consideration it seems prudent to let the birds live. 
Sagittaria Chinensis, reported by Mr. S. B. Parish, from San Ber- 
nardino, is reported from Howell Mountain, Napa County, and has 
just been brought to us from Sonoma by Mr. John MacLean. The 
climate evidently suits it, and it might be introduced with advantage 
into our great tule marshes, 
