LAND BIRDS. 483 



tion among the people taking advantage of the bounty offer, and usually, 

 as in the case of the Sparrow, work much harm to beneficial species. In 

 Michigan the Sparrow laws have served no useful purpose whatever. True, 

 in two or three instances the number of Sparrows has been temporarily 

 reduced, but in no case has the reduction been carried anywhere near the 

 point of extermination, and as soon as active warfare against them was 

 relaxed they speedily regained their former numbers. On the other hand, 

 the taxpayers of the several counties have been called upon to pay out 

 enormous sums for this work and the most scandalous corruption has been 

 developed in certain places. 



Owing to the fact that the bounty money is paid entirely out of county 

 funds it has proved impossible to get complete figures for the state or even 

 for any single county, but some of the figures obtained by direct corre- 

 spondence with county officers are sufficiently suggestive. Thus complete 

 returns were obtained from nineteen counties, all in the Lower Peninsula, 

 for the year 1898, and they showed amounts ranging from $12.36 in Gladwin 

 county to $3,804.60 in Gratiot county. The total bounties paid in that 

 year by the nineteen counties amounted to $21,416.06, the average being 

 $1,127.16. During that year Eaton county paid $1,386.00, Genesee county 

 $1,697.00, Jackson county $2,370.00, Ingham county, $2,407.00. Remember- 

 ing that these nineteen counties represent less than one-fourth of the state, 

 it would certainly be within bounds to estimate the total Sparrow bounties 

 paid in 1898 at $50,000.00. The increase of bounties paid during successive 

 years in some of the counties is also very suggestive; thus Branch county 

 in 1894, paid $142.00, in 1895 $170.00, in 1896 $352.00, in 1897 $890.00, and 

 in 1898 $1,064.00. Gratiot county in 1896 paid $967.00, in 1897 $2,239.00, 

 and in 1898 $3,805.00. Ingham county in 1896 paid $432.00, in 1897 

 $1,372.00, and in 1898 $2,407.00. 



Careful inquiry in all the counties where the largest amounts were paid 

 has satisfied us that there has been no appreciable decrease in the number 

 of Sparrows as a result of the money expended. Moreover, fraud and graft 

 have developed to an alarming degree in connection with the Sparrow 

 bounty law, and serious, and in several cases fatal, accidents have resulted 

 from the use of firearms in the hands of careless and inexperienced people, 

 and particularly in the hands of boys who have used firearms within city 

 Hmits and in violation of the ordinances. This feature of the case alone 

 should prevent the adoption of the bounty law by any county of the state. 



The conditions affecting Sparrow increase in Michigan probably are 

 unlike those in most of the states, at all events it is certain that Sparrows 

 will not increase indefinitely in our larger cities. A succession of two or 

 three mild winters will be followed, almost always, by a noteworthy increase 

 in the number of Sparrows ; but not all these will remain in the cities or 

 towns where they were bred, a large part of the increase will spread out 

 through the surrounding country and only a part of this increase will return 

 to the cities in winter. An ordinarily severe winter kills off a very large 

 number of Sparrows. Just what is the proportion thus killed it is im- 

 possible to say, but severe winters have a marked effect in cutting down the 

 numbers, and two or three severe winters in succession would doubtless 

 do more to lessen their numbers than the expenditure of several millions 

 of dollars in liounties. 



It is entirely feasible to kill out one-half to three-fourths of the Sparrows 

 in any city in a single winter, at a very small expense, by the judicious 

 use of poisoned food. This work of course should not be trusted to irrc- 



