A Few Thoughts on Birds and Forests. 93 



For at least three months they destroy so vast an amount of insects that 

 the accounts of ornithology seem fabulous. Audubon, the highest authority 

 on birds, assures us that a woodcock will eat its own weight in insects in a 

 single night. Dr. Bradley tells us that woodpeckers are constantly ridding 

 the orchards of insects. 



To preserve our birds we must preserve our forests. Trees are the nat- 

 ural home of birds, and, with the exception of the aquatic tribe, their only 

 home. 



Gentleman of the American Horticultural Society, there is a great 

 issue— a suit before the tribunal of men of thought. It is not so much a 

 question of expediency as it is of justice. The title of said suit is, " Birds vs. 

 Worms." A part of that court is here and now in session. What will the 

 verdict be ? It can not be decided today. The jury is not all impaneled. In- 

 deed, the court is not all present. Millions of American boys are to be educated 

 to a high point of national discrimination and discernment before the testi- 

 mony is all in. Thousands of grown men are not yet competent jurors. 

 Some nuisances are to be abated before we are ready for trial. The shotgun 

 iriust be abated, if not abolished ; and woman must be taught not to decorate 

 ht^r hat with the symbol of the life blood of her best friend. 



And now, in conclusion, do you ask which birds shall be fostered and 

 preserved, and which, if any, may be destroyed ? Save all except, perhaps, 

 a few birds of prey, and two others. The sap sucker {Sphyrapicus varius) I re- 

 gard as an unmitigated scamp, fit only for power and shot. And last of all," the 

 worst pill in the box," the English sparrow {Fringilla domestica). He is the 

 sum of all ornithological rascality, and deserves nothing good at your hands. 

 There is one apology for him, and that is no virtue of his : Like the African, 

 he came not of his own free will. Some villainous white man captured and 

 brought him, or else some governmental dude got an appropriation through 

 congress, and spent, perhaps, a moiety of it in this, the second worst impor- 

 tation that ever vex^d the seas, and came to America. 



The following letter breathes a hearty spirit: 



Manalapan, Monmouth County, N. J., December 8, 1887. 

 George W. Minier, 3Iinier, III.: 



Dear SiR^In reply to your inquiries, would say that the only bird considered 

 injurious to agriculture or horticulture in New Jersey is the English sparrow. 

 At the last annual meeting of the State Horticultural Society the following res- 

 olution was adopted, via.: 



"That the two Directors from this Society to the State Board of Agriculture be 

 and are hereby appointed a committee for the purpose of uniting with a like com- 

 mittee from the board in asking the legislature of this state to enact a law placing 

 a bounty of two cents for each and every English sparrow killed in this state, pay- 

 able by the several justices of the peace throughout the state." 



It was the opinion of the Society that the English sparrow is, from its known 

 •destructiveness, the greatest pest now known to horticulture, and that a law for their 

 extermination, to be effectual, should be national ; and to this end I hope the Ameri- 



