622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But the relations of our native birds to the English sparrow 

 seem now to be undergoing a change. F. H. Kirncoll (Auk, vol. 

 vi, July, 1894, p. 261) has stated that in many localities in Illi- 

 nois the English sparrow and native birds are now found nesting 

 side by side, where only a few years ago the English sparrow 

 occupied all the desirable nesting sites, and assumed so aggres- 

 sive an attitude toward native birds that one rarely saw a native 

 bird nesting in the regions inhabited by the English sparrow. 

 "Either," he writes, "our native birds have unexpectedly de- 

 veloped powers of resistance at first unsuspected, or the pug- 

 nacity of the English sparrow has diminished, for certainly our 

 own songsters have not been driven away, but, on the contrary, 

 seem as numerous as they were twenty years ago. For the past 

 two or three years, since my attention was first called to the 

 matter, I have seen but little if any persecution of our native 

 birds by the foreign sparrows ; on the contrary, our own birds are 

 now often the aggressors, and if they do not indulge in persecu- 

 tion themselves are adepts at defense. Very commonly a jaj^, 

 robin, or catbird will from pure mischief hustle a flock of spar- 

 rows into desperate flight." 



I find, on referring to the Government report of 1889, that the 

 English sparrow has been present in the town of Burlington, 

 Kansas, for ten or twelve years. My own attention was not at- 

 tracted particularly to these birds until after they had been there 

 for several years. Upon returning to Burlington in 1889, I began 

 to look about upon the lawn for my old bird friends, and found 

 none of them. Upon inquiry, I was told that they had all been 

 driven away by the English sparrow. The wren house was oc- 

 cupied by sparrows. The martins, robins, bluebirds, and cat- 

 birds had all resisted according to their various strengths, and 

 had been worsted in the conflict. The lawn under consideration 

 is one peculiarly attractive to birds on account of its bountiful 

 supply of shade trees. There is a long walk upon it completely 

 shaded by apple and pear trees, of which the ripening fruit proves 

 attractive to insects all summer long, while the fruit itself is no 

 less enticing to bird than insect. On one side of the lawn there 

 are cherry trees with their tempting fruit, and on the adjoining 

 lots a large kitchen garden with its ripening seeds, berries, and 

 freshly turned loam. Altogether this place furnishes a paradise 

 for parent birds. The house itself was covered with vines of the 

 Virginia and trumpet creepers. Within these vines the English 

 sparrow took up its abode and soon so increased in numbers as 

 to be able to mob any other bird that ventured on the premises. 

 (July one pair of blue jays stubbornly clung to their nest in an 

 apple tree. With this pair was throughout the summer waged one 

 long and bitter warfare. 



