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neighborhood, House Wrens, Orioles, Vireos, Catbirds, Wilson's Thrushes, Eobins, 

 Chipping Sparrows, Song Sparrows, the American Goldfinch and the Yellow Warb- 

 lers have all bred in close proximity to many pairs of Sparrows, and have not been 

 interfered with by them; but if I had not kept a pretty close watch over the nests, 

 and taken out the eggs of the Cowbirds which were deposited therein, but few broods 

 would have been successfully raised. 



The House Sparrow has one particularly good trait which should not be over- 

 looked, and that is its fondness for the seeds of the Knot grass or Knot weed and of 

 the Dandelion. These pernicious plants frequently appear on our boulevards and 

 lawns and sometimes destroy the grass completely. As soon as the seeds of these 

 weeds form the Sparrows find it out, constantly visit them and greedily devour the 

 seed, so that they are kept down to a very great extent and in some cases quite 

 cleared out. 



HOUSE SPAEROW. 



Description. 



Adult male. Crown gray, bordered from the eye backward and on the nape by 

 chestnut; lesser wing coverts chestnut, middle coverts tipped with white; back 

 streaked with black and chestnut ; upper tail coverts ashy ; middle of the throat and 

 breast black ; sides of the throat white ; belly whitish. 



Adult female. Upper parts grayish brown, the back streaked with black and 

 dull buffy, under parts grayish white. 



L., 6.33 ; W., 3.00 ; T.," 2.30. 



Nest, about buildings or in trees. Eggs, four or five, very variable, ground color, 

 generally grayish or greenish white, speckled and blotched with varying shades of 

 brown. 



FINCHES AND TANAGERS. 



PURPLE FINCH. 



The Purple Finch (the adult male of this species is crimson, not purple) in 

 the spring is sometimes injurious in orchards and gardens, where it destroys the buds 

 of fruit trees. They will also devour great quantities of sunflower and other seeds. 

 They are not, however, sufficiently numerous to cause much loss. 



WILD CANARY. 



Certainly a very useful weed destroyer is the American Goldfinch or Wild 

 Canary as it is commonly called ; the majority of these little birds remain with us 

 in Southern Ontario all through the year. In winter they gather into flocks and 

 resort to the evergreen woods, where, in their dull brownish yellow plumage of that 

 seacon they are not often recognized. At this time their food consists of the seeds 

 of the hemlock and birch, aud of such plants as stick up through the snow. On 

 mild days flocks of them may sometimes be seen visiting the weed patches about the 

 clearings. In the summer they scatter all over the country, frequently nesting in 

 the small trees about the farms and orchards. They are not insect destroyers to any 

 appreciable extent, their favorite food being the seeds of some of our most noxious 

 plant enemies, such as the Dandelion, Canada Thistle, and others bearing plumed 

 seed. The first appearance of these birds in the cultivated parts of the country is 

 generally co-incident with the seeding of the Dandelion. As soon as the seed is 



