SECRETAKY'S PORTFOLIO. 369 



rows did not resent it, and the two occupants dwelt together in unity. The 

 result is, the insects have stripped the tree of its leaves, and the poor sparrows 

 are without a shelter, and when it rains they make a pitiful twittering, but they 

 meekly endure their wrongs. 0, the love of the sparrow ; the base ingratitude 

 of the caterpillar. — Indiana Farmer. 



THE ROBIN. 



The American Agriculturist puts down the robin of this country as one of the 

 pests of the garden. Their first depredations were on the strawberry beds, 

 where they devoured fine and luscious specimens of the Monarch of the West, 

 and mutilated more than they ate. Next, the green peas were scooped out of 

 the pods; then they devoured pecks of the early cherries; the currants, which 

 the owner had carefully saved by applying hellebore, were next plundered by 

 all the robins in the neighborhood ; then the early pears were pecked and punct- 

 ured, and the Delaware and other grapes fed on till frost. The writer then 

 says : " We hardly know the secret of his popularity; he is not more beautiful 

 than other birds, and has no sweeter song." We can inform him : it comes 

 from the use of another bird's trade-mark — the name of the English robin, a 

 very different bird, closely allied to our blue-bird, and a really amiable little 

 fellow, whose fame has been spread by old legends and nursery songs; while 

 the American robin is much like the English blackbird and belongs to the same 

 genus. — Country Gentleman. 



ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALL FRUITS. 



This lively little fellow has elicited considerable discussion for two or three 

 years past. His family increases so rapidly that most of our large towns and 

 cities are already quartering his progeny, likewise his "cousins, and his uncles 

 and his aunts," and their descendants in large numbers. 



In regard to whether these birds are a benefit or an injury, the weight of 

 argument thus far has gone to prove that they are not a desirable acquisition. 

 They are exceedingly pugnacious, driving away almost every other bird that 

 comes within their reach, or attempts to build its nest in their vicinity. But 

 the most serious count in the indictment against them is the injury they do to 

 fruit; not so much to the fruit itself, but to the bushes and trees during the 

 winter. A case in point has recently come under observation. Mr. J. Newhall 

 of Toronto, Canada, has hitherto been an advocate of the English sparrows, 

 and frequently defended them in the public prints, but he has had an experi- 

 ence with them the past winter which has cooled his admiration. He has a 

 red currant patch to which the sparrow paid great attention. Curiosity led 

 him to investigate the matter, when, to his surprise and consternation, he 

 found every bush entirely denuded of every fruit-bud as clean as if it had been 

 rubbed down with leather-gloved hands. Not a bud left ! Further investi- 

 gation showed that his Glass' seedling plums were nearly stripped of every bud 

 also, and his Mayduke cherries were considerably damaged. Mr. Newhall now 

 thinks that if these sparrows increase in the same ratio for the next three years 

 as they have in the past three, it will be useless to attempt to grow small fruits 



47 



