80 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



June the fruit of the large White Mulberry tree near the main 

 entrance begins to ripen, troops of thirty or more pay short 

 but numerous visits to it for a whole week without drawing 

 the attention of the visitors of the Garden, for they come 

 silently and go silently or nearly so, emitting only a fine lisp- 

 ing note, easily missed. While feeding they are perfectly still, 

 knowing that they are trespassing. No harm is done on White 

 Mulberry trees, as their fruit is insipid and not eatei^ by man, 

 but when they invade the early cherry trees, they can do real 

 damage by spoiling much more than they eat, returning to the 

 same tree day after day, even hour after hour, if not scared 

 away by shooting blank cartridges. Mulberry trees, both 

 the White and the Red, should be planted in profusion in 

 gardens, parks and orchards, where they would draw fruit- 

 eating birds away from the cherries ripening at the same 

 time. Birds have had their wild fruit in plenty before the 

 white man came and cut down the trees, shrubs and vines, 

 which supplied them. Now it seems our duty, in justice to 

 our fellow-creatures, to return, in part at least, what has been 

 taken from them, by growing many different kinds of fruit- 

 bearing plants, combining the useful with the pleasing, since 

 they are ornamental, hardy trees, shrubs and vines, easily 

 raised from seeds. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 1. 



Above, male (at left) and female European Tree Sparrow; below, male 

 (behind) and female House Sparrow: two-thirds natural size. 



