(40) 



DISCUSSION. 



MR. \v. D. hunter: "Something like four orfive years ag-o, owing- to 

 a remarkably favorable season, a great many grasshoppers came in the fall 

 of the year to the university campus to deposit their eggs, the campus be- 

 ing at that time well watered, while the surrounding gardens and lawns 

 were not kept in such favorable condition. In consequence of this we had 

 a terrible plague of grasshoppers the next year. About the time the first 

 brood of Sparrows began to inspect thing's and feed out of the nest they 

 discovered the insects and beg-an devouring them. We soon noticed a great 

 many of the birds on the campus, and as they are protected here, the small 

 boys being kept out, it was not long before the work of extermination was 

 carried on to such an extent that there no grasshoppers left on the campus, 

 which was the only place in this vicinity" of which this was true." 



Mr. Hunter called attention to the fact that the published investiga- 

 tions of the Department of Agriculture referred to only 522 stomachs, tak- 

 en at different times throughout the year, and represented only mature 

 birds. He did not think the results could be taken as final. 



DR. woivCOTT: "Experience shows that assumptions in regard to an 

 introduced species based on facts observed in its original home are likely 

 to be misleading. I believe the Eng^lish Sparrow distinctly injurious. In 

 Michigan they do great damage to wheat, and often paths beneath rows of 

 trees by roads adjacent to wheat fields are strewn with chaff and remnants 

 of heads of g-rain. They also do inuch damage to fruit, pecking into grapes 

 and peaches." 



DR. WARD could conceive that the Sparrow might be of advantage in 

 town or country, but gave one or two points with reference to its positive 

 damage in cities. The foreigner, introduced into Troy, N. Y. about 1870, 

 supplanted the native song-birds, fights between the two being witnessed 

 in the streets before the latter finally disappeared. Elms, which at that 

 time lined the streets and were so well developed that they arched over the 

 roadway as an almost continuous avenue of shade, were, in consequence, 

 within a few years entirely destroyed by bugs. The birds defiled public 

 buildings and destroyed a splendid ivy which adorned one of the finest 

 churches, and which was the pride of the whole city. 



PROF. BARBOUR must go ou record as an enemy of the Sparrow, but 

 thought we ought to be careful in drawing our conclusions. In the wheat 

 fields of Ohio and Indiana he had seen forty-acre fields about the margin 

 of which, through a belt twenty feet wide and extending entirely around 

 the field, one could find only here and there a kernel of wheat. After the 

 wheat was cut the birds completely riddled the cap-sheaf, leaving no grain 

 at all. They also destroyed growing corn by picking through the husk, 

 and then eating- the soft kernels of the ears. He knew of farmers who had 

 abandoned the attempt to raise g-arden truck, owing to the injury infiicted 

 by the birds, that pick off the sprouts as fast as they appear above ground. 

 He called attention to the effect on architecture. It is changing the char- 

 acter of designs, everything in the nature of relief or carvings in stone be- 

 ing avoided, since that furnishes hiding places for the birds. Beautiful 

 buildings in various parts of New England are rendered unsightly by net- 

 ting and boards put up to keep away the pests. In certain cities of that 

 region they are extremely numerous; in one storm 300 perished under the 

 eaves of a single church, and the loss from the storm made no perceptible 

 difference with the Sparrow population. The noise is a disagreeable fea- 

 ture. In certain places in Philadelphia it was difficult to talk on account 

 of the incessant chatter. 



MR. w. D. HUNTER thought that although the Sparrow did defile ma- 

 sonry, it more than compensated for that by destroying insects in cities 

 where other birds would not molest them. 



