1883.] UTILITY OF BIRDS IN AGRICULTURE. 99 



reside there is a row of linden trees, and this past summer a 

 pair of vireos came along, and no sooner had they perched 

 upon the branches in front of the window where I was sitting 

 than the sparrows went for the vireos, and I saw no more of 

 them, but the sparrows came back chattering the song of 

 victory. These birds are not only pests and nuisances by 

 reason of the fact that they drive away other birds, but be- 

 cause they destroy a great deal themselves. A gentleman 

 recently told me that a piece of rye in Watertown, near 

 Boston, was nearly or quite destroyed by them. I have 

 also seen a statement of a case where a field of barley was 

 nearly destroyed, and the man who suffered the loss had 

 prosecuted, or was about prosecuting, the society with a long 

 name for having introduced that bird into that section. 1 

 think he would have a good cause of action against the party. 

 I think it was just about as unwise to bring that pest on to 

 the Boston Common as it was in a former mayor to introduce 

 gray squirrels there, that became such pests that measures 

 had to be taken to remove them. If the English sparrow is 

 protected by the bird law, I hope that that law will be amend- 

 ed, and that every boy who has a shot-gun will be privileged 

 to use it until that pest is driven from the land. 



Mr. LocKWOOD. I would suggest, that instead of sparrows, 

 they introduce crows on Boston Common. One of my neigh- 

 bors planted his corn, after tarring it, which is said to pre- 

 vent the ravages of crows. It acted in that way until the 

 second hoeing, when the corn was up some eighteen inches 

 high, and then the crows came in and pulled nearly an acre 

 clean. I leave it to the audience to judge for what reason 

 they pulled it. That gentleman said it was out of "pure 

 cussedness." 



Dr. Sturtevant. I want to bear my testimony against the 

 sparrow. I must plead guiltyto introducing them into South 

 Framingham. I introduced twenty-five, and let them loose. 

 1 have seen enough to make me thoroughly despise them. In 

 the first place, they are so quarrelsome that they disturb one's 

 sleep in the early morning. The second charge is, that they 



