CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION 



12: 



tree, sang a couple of moments, then 

 returned to the window shelf. No 

 wonder these birds have been named 

 "the darlings of the song birds.' 



The English sparrows have always 

 been a stumbling-block in the path of 

 the bird student; they are the cause of 

 many a "tragedy of the nests"; to say 

 nothing of their depredations in the 

 chicken yard, where no doubt they 

 consume a very large portion of the 

 grain and other poultry food. But their 

 worst feature is their malicious cruelty. 

 I write solely from my own experience, 

 for I have seen sufficient evidence of 

 this not to need to refer to any of the 

 authorities who have already expressed 

 a like opinion. I have seen them while 

 their own young waited to be fed, fly 

 to a wren's box, the entrance of which 

 was too small for the sparrow to enter, 

 and work trying to pull out the nesting 

 material for fifteen minutes at a time ; 

 and keep this up at intervals all day 

 for over a week. I have seen them fly 

 to a robin's nest high up in an elm, and 

 deliberately pull away some of the 

 dried grass, only to let it float off on the 

 breeze. The way they have harassed 

 my blue birds that were formerly so 

 numerous in the old apple trees, has 

 been shameful ; and I fear they have 

 succeeded in driving them away alto- 

 gether; for I cannot see that the one 

 pair that nested in a box in a pear tree 

 last spring has come back. I believe 

 this pair of blue birds to be the same 

 that has for years, nested in a hole in 

 the trunk of an elm tree off at one side 

 of the pear orchard, for it was pitiful to 

 see their efforts to keep that home ; 

 but the sparrows pestered them so 

 that they built in the box I had put up 

 and returned to it every spring for 

 three seasons; and now it looks as if 

 they had been driven from that too. 

 I could relate many more such in- 

 stances of wanton cruelty on the part 

 of these detestable birds, but space 

 forbids. 



It seems strange that the importa- 

 tion of this bird and the subsequent 

 results, did not teach a lesson that 

 would at least have kept us from re- 

 peating such a deplorable mistake : but 

 alas, no ! Another foreign bird has 



been thrust upon us for our sins, and 

 if such a thing is possible they are 

 evefn more objectionable than the Eng- 

 lish sparrows. 1 refer to the starlings. 

 They too, are English, and like the 

 sparrows are very hardy. I have not 

 seen as yet evidences of their being 

 deliberately cruel ; but the hideous 

 noises with which they fill the air and 

 the alarming rate at which they are 

 increasing, makes me believe that be- 

 fore long they will be considered quite 

 as much a nuisance as the sparrow. 

 That they drive off the blue birds also, 

 I have plenty of evidence ; but I feel 

 sure it is done in the effort to appro- 

 priate the hole in the trees ; for they 

 even try to oust the flickers. They will 

 have holes to nest in at any cost ; so 

 I cannot help feeling that they have 

 helped to keep away the blue birds. 

 They raise three broods a year and I 

 think lay six eggs each time, but of this 

 I am not positive. These two foreign- 

 ers and our own grackles must prevent 

 hundreds of more desirable birds from 

 nesting near our homes. I have seen 

 grackles steal eggs and very young 

 nestlings from robins' nests and they 

 (the grackles) are also increasing at 

 an almost incredible rate. 



Is it not sad that this is not the case 

 with the more desirable birds? 

 Sincerely yours, 



Nathalie Bonner. 



The Texas Tarantula. 



San Antonio, Texas. 

 To The Editor : — 



I take pleasure in sending The Guide 

 to Nature a nice photographic view of 

 a huge Texas tarantula captured by 

 Private A. F. Denton, of the United 

 States army, in a camp near Fort Mc- 

 Intosch, Texas. It was sent to me alive 

 in a well secluded box and later placed 

 in an extra secure wooden box with a 

 glass pane attached, through which the 

 photograph herein was prepared in sun- 

 lipfit. The box had been prepared by 

 Dr. A. Lange, veterinary surgeon, who 

 placed a freshly captured rat with the 

 tarantula. The latter killed the rat after 

 a few inoculations with her powerful 

 poison fangs in about five hours, showing 

 the venomous character of this type of 



