370 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in Toronto. He thinks also that this matter is a fit subject for the consider- 

 ation of Fruit Growers' Associations. His suggestion is proper and timely, 

 for these sparrows multiply prodigiously, and are spreading rapidly throughout 

 the country. Forewarned is oftentimes forearmed. — Prairie Farmer. 



SPARE THE SAPSUCKER. 



The poor "sapsucker" — "Nuthatch" of the books — is again attacked in 

 some quarters on the score that it really does injury to fruit trees by boring 

 holes in the trunks and sucking the sap, and hence the life of the tree ! We 

 pity the shortsightedness of those who thus expose themselves to public ridicule. 

 They offer no proof of a nature that a justice of the peace would receive in a 

 case of assault and battery; they jump at conclusions without investigation — 

 and in questions of this kind everything depends upon investigation. The 

 harmless "sapsucker," like several other birds, has to bear a great deal of 

 nonsensical abuse ; and while it presents no bill for the myriads of worms and 

 insects it destroys, it ought to be remunerated on every side by a good word for 

 the valuable service it performs and a stern denial of the sins charged against 

 it. — Qermantown Telegraph. 



AN ENGLISHMAN'S VIEW OF THE SPARROW. 



A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle thus relieves himself on the 

 sparrow question: "Would that the 'hot blasts of indignation' had the power 

 to rid the gardeners of such winged vermin as sparrows, bullfinches, chaf- 

 finches, linnets, and bluecaps. I can indorse all that can be said against that 

 worst of all winged vermin, the unspeakable sparrow. The unusual severity 

 of last winter did not diminish the number of sparrows in this district, for 

 there are countless multitudes. Eat caterpillars, indeed ! Any one looking at 

 the gooseberry bushes in this district would become an unbeliever in such works 

 of charity by a sparrow. They are content only with the best of corn and 

 dainties from the kitchen garden, then scent their bills with sweet-scented 

 flowers. Quite aristocratic, of course ; more especially now that parochial 

 sparrow clubs are extinct." 



THE PREY CATCHERS. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller, writing on this subject in The American Entomologist, 

 expresses these sensible views : 



It is no wonder that the fields are overrun with mice, and hundreds of 

 thousands of fruit trees are annually girdled and destroyed by these pests, 

 whose natural enemies have been driven away or killed. Better keep the chick- 

 ens and turkeys in a secure lath-covered yard until they are too large to be 

 caught by hawks than to kill off all the birds of prey. The crow or blackbird, 

 although not classed among the birds of prey by ornithologists, are considered 

 as such by our farmers, and pursued with as much vindictiveness, because both 

 are sometimes caught stealing a few grains of corn, and the former is known 



