20 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



family with some generally accepted 'rascals,' hence I will 

 admit that possihly some of the charges with which he is cred- 

 ited may he true, but I still believe that most of the injuries ^ 

 to grapes in this and other states must be laid to the English 

 Sparrow. 



"If we take pains to water our birds during the dry sea- 

 sons they will be much less apt to steal this supply from the 

 juices of fruits that are so temptingly near at hand. Place lit- 

 tle pans of water in the orchard and vineyard where the birds 

 can visit them without fear of being seized by the house cat 

 or knocked oyer by a missde from the alert 'small boy,' and 

 I am sure that the injury to fruit, to a great extent at least, will 

 cease. 



"Recent investigations tend to prove that the Crackle or 

 Crow-Blackbird does more good than harm and should be pro- 

 tected. 



"Our Sparrows and their allies, taken together, form a 

 very extensive family of very beautiful as well as useful birds. 

 Like the warblers, they occupy themselves with searching for 

 ami destroying insects all summer long; but this is not all they 

 do that is good. In fall, winter and early spring, when Mother 

 Earth has lost her brilliant green and rests in sombre browns 

 or beneath ice and snow, the Longspurs, Snow Bunting, Snow- 

 bird, and some of the sparrows that have remained with us 

 are busily engaged in gathering for themselves a living. They 

 hop and fly about from place to place searching for and pick- 

 ing up little seeds of grass, grain and weeds, of shrubs and 

 trees, and appropriating the same to their use, chirping mer- 

 rily as they work away. The European House Sparrow, or 

 the English Sparrow as it is more commonly called, has the 

 worst reputation of the entire family. Rut even this bird has 

 some redeeming traits. 



"The Tanagers are insect destroyers, feeding for the most 

 part on such forms as attack the foliage of trees. 



"All of our Swallows are insect destroyers, capturing such 

 forms as gnats, flies, etc.. which they seize while on the wing. 



