noisy and vituperative. It defiles buildings and ornamental trees, shrubs and 

 vines with its excrement and with its bulk}- nests. 



The evidence against the English sparrow is, on the whole, overwhelming, 

 and the present unfriendly attitude of the public towards it is reflected in our 

 State laws. Nowhere is it included among protected birds. 



Although English sparrows are widely distributed as a species, individuals 

 and flocks have an extremely narrow range, each flock occupying one locality 

 to which its activities are chiefly confined. This fact is favorable to their 

 extermination, for when a place has once been cleared of sparrows some time 

 elapses before it is reoccupied. This tendency to remain on special territory was 

 well shown during a recent experiment with a flock in a small city garden. Dur- 

 ing the fall steady trapping reduced the resident flock in the garden to a dozen 

 individuals, 274 birds having been trapped. The survivors were poisoned. 

 Though another flock lived in the street just beyond the fence, the garden was 

 sparrow free for three months. In the following spring a few sparrows appeared, 

 but were soon trapped. After this the garden continued throughout the summer 

 without a resident flock, and only rarely was it visited by sparrows from other 

 parts of the neighborhood. 



AIDING NATIVE BIRDS AGAINST THE ENGLISH SPARROW 



One of the greatest objections to the English sparrow is its aggressive 

 antagonism toward the small native birds, especially those familiar species which, 

 like itself, build their nests in cavities. Nest boxes provided for bluebirds, 

 martins, or wrens — birds both useful and pleasing — too often fall into the pos- 

 session of this graceless alien, either by the right of discovery or by piratical 

 assault. Fortunately it is possible to aid the native birds by selecting suitable 

 nest boxes. Thus, a box having an entrance 1 inch in diameter will admit 

 house wrens, but not sparrows. Boxes for larger birds may be constructed so 

 that unwelcome tenants can be readily evicted and at the same time acceptable 

 to more desirable species. When a sparrow has had its nest and eggs removed 

 from a box, it not only as a rule seeks another place for its next nest, but is 

 likely to avoid that type of nest box in future. 



The Sandhill Crane {Cms mexkana) 

 By William C. Mills 



Range : resident in Louisiana and Florida ; bred formerly from southern 

 British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and western Ontario south to Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado, Nebraska, Illinois and Ohio ; winters from California, Texas 

 and Louisiana south to Mexico. 



The big sandhill crane seems most at home on the broad expanse of the 

 western prairies and marshes which ofifer it food and security. It is still com- 

 mon, however, in Louisana and southeastern Florida, where the prairies and 



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