106 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



court house was evidently their nesting-jjlace. As so many birds visit 

 there, no one noticed them, until they were seen fi2;hting and driving 

 off, far out of sight, the robins and other birds. They were unusually 

 bold in the presence of passers-by. As soon as it was known what 

 they were, they were fired upon. From that moment no one could get 

 near a sparrow there no matter how busily these little birds were shriek- 

 ing, as soon as any one even looked at them, off they disappeared. A 

 pair visited a martin box in my yard, and for the first time in nineteen 

 years I missed the delightful chattering and ""poUy put the kettle on" . 

 of those birds. This year again they came and were killed, but now I 

 find a pair is hovering about, waking me of mornings with their 

 screeks, but disappearing as soon as looked at. They are nesting in 

 trees, barns and other places. Like some foul pestilence, they have 

 come to stay, and it is now certain that they will spread over the whole 

 land. They breed several times per year, it is said, and soon vaS't 

 swarms develop from a single pair. It now is for us to consider what 

 will be the result. Not long ago a scientific gentleman, writing to 

 some association in Europe, declared that " the introduction of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow into the United States will prove to be a national calam- 

 ity." Whoever did the work of introducing was foolhardy. A monu- 

 ment of mud should be erected to his memory. But we are to blame 

 for our apathy. Time was when their extermination would have been 

 a light work, but now it will require a general uprising and continual 

 effort to even keep them down. The least familiarity with the peasant 

 life of Europe, with its ballads, songs, proverbs and literature, must 

 have assured the person who introduced these winged rats of the dan- 

 ger. There they have ever been a nuisance, but owing to dense popu- 

 lations they are more easily kept down, being eatable where meat is 

 so dear. In addition to driving away other birds they ioul the roofs 

 and make cistern water unfit for use. The cruelty of this bird is known 

 from the immortal nursery song, "Who killed Cock Robin?'' Who of 

 all birds, beasts or men ? " I," said the sparrow. None but him. Thal> 

 strange genius Borrow, that prince of all travellers who ever tried to 

 write a book of travels, in his most interesting of all books, " The Bible- 

 in Spain," gives us a hint. He quotes a Spanish peasant as singing : 



"May the Lord deliver us from evil birds three. 



From all sparrows and friars and curates that be ; 

 For the sparrows eat up all the corn that we sow ; 



The friars drink down all the wine that we grow ; 

 The curates have all our fair dames at their nod ; 



From these three evil curses, O spare us Lord God." 



