BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



noisy demonstration. Like the brown creeper and the 

 phoebe, he is of great economic value; like them, he is not 

 particularly interesting, and he is without skill as a song- 

 ster. But his monotonous trill is a pleasant part of the 

 spring chorus, and his presence in our yards we should 

 sorely miss. 



Mr. Forbush speaks in high praise of this bird's use- 

 fulness. He claims that the chippy is "the most destruc- 

 tive of all birds to the injurious pea-louse, which caused 

 a loss of three million dollars to the pea-crop of a single 

 state in one year." ^ This sparrow eats the grubs that 

 feed on beet-leaves, cabbages, and other vegetables; he 

 devours cankerworms and currant worms, besides gypsy, 

 brown-tail, and tent caterpillars, any one of which would 

 entitle him to our protection. In the fall, with the de- 

 crease of life in the garden, he takes to the fields, where 

 like other sparrows he feasts on seeds. 



If it were more generally known how invaluable chip- 

 ping sparrows are, people would guard them more care- 

 fully from marauding cats. I wish it might become as 

 unlawful to let cats stalk abroad during the nesting season 

 as it is to allow unmuzzled dogs to go about freely during 

 dog-days. I know of a bird-lover near Painesville, Ohio, 

 who never during nesting-time allowed her pet cat to stir 

 outside of a good-sized enclosure without a weight attached 

 to his collar. Some people have put bells on their cats' 

 necks, but while that is efficacious in alarming parent- 

 birds, it is of no value in preventing the slaughter of 

 young birds that have just left the nest. Mr. Forbush 

 has written an appeal, which I wish was more widely 

 known and heeded. It is called "The Domestic Cat" and 



iFrom "Useful Birds and their Protection," by E. H. Forbush. 



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