214 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



period a part of their food consists of insects, but as the young birds grow 

 older they prefer seeds and grain. Without question the English 

 sparrow protects more insects than he destroys, by driving away 

 insectivorou's birds. That these foreigners drive away familiar native 

 species there can be no doubt. Particularly do the wrens, martens, 

 swallows, and blue birds suffer, as their nesting places are eagerly sought 

 for and secured by the sparrows. Occasionally the native birds hold 

 their own for a time, but sooner or later they must succumb. Often when 

 necessary the English sparrows will club together to drive away a pair of 

 native birds. Even the robins and pigeons can not withstand numbers, 

 and are obliged to vacate, leaving their eggs and young to be thrown out 

 of the nests and killed. If this were the worst of their attacks, we could 

 still find some excuse for the sparrow; but they have been repeatedly 

 found in the act of destroying, not only the nests but the eggs and young 

 birds of other species with no other purpose than to exclude them from 

 the neighborhood. True, the English sparrow has been seen living on 

 friendly terms with native birds and even nesting side by side with them. 

 but as the sparrows increase in numbers they become more quarrelsome. 

 As yet the greatest amount of injury is done around cities and towns, but 

 as the sparrows increase and migrate into the country, they are sure to 

 take with them the same destructive habits and ugly disposition. There 

 are people in America today who are staunch friends of the sparrows, but 

 usually such persons live in a locality where the sparrows have not yet 

 become a pest. We do not object to a few grasshoppers in Kansas, a few 

 rabbits in Australia, or a few mice in Russia, but when they become so 

 numerous as to eat every green thing, then it is quite another matter. 



In a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture in 1889, on the- 

 English sparrow, it is shown that a single pair of these sparrows may pro- 

 duce in ten years 275,716,983,698. To show that the above figures are not 

 wholly out of bound, we have but to cite the following examples taken from 

 the same bulletin: Norwood Giles of Wilmington, N. C. : " It rears four 

 broods here. Began nesting as early as -Jan. 22, this year." H. B. Bailey, 

 of East Prange, N. J.: " It rears five or six broods yearly with four to six 

 young in a brood." Thomas Chalmers, of Holyoke, Mass.l "It rears five 

 broods annually and five birds to a brood. Have known of six broods in a 

 season from one pair. For the last fifteen years the sparrow has spread 

 on an average over 69,000 square miles per year; but their increase is a 

 geometrical ratio. Thus for the first few years the increase must have 

 been comparatively small, while during the last two or three years it has- 

 spread faster than in all the previous years. If it is allowed to continue at 

 this rate, what must be the ultimate end? 



Before carrying on any warfare against the English sparrow it is 

 important to be able always to distinguish it from the native birds. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW. {Passer Domesticm.) 



The bill is very stout, with its upper and lower lines curved. In the 

 male the upper parts are ashy gray, while the middle of the back is 

 streaked with bay and black. The lesser wing coverts — the short feathers 

 at the base of the wings — are chestnut. The greater wing coverts are 

 mostly black, though each black feather is bordered with chestnut. At 

 the base of the large wing coverts is a white wing bar nearly an inch long. 

 The lower parts are ashy white, with the throat black the latter bordered 



