3l8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



English Sparrows, like all animals that have been treated as vermin, are 

 very suspicious and are well supplied with cunning. I have several times placed 

 outside the enclosure the same food which attracted the Sparrows to the hen- 

 yard, with the intention of baiting and shooting them, but they have refused 

 to touch it. After once being shot at, they disappear at the first sight of a 

 gun. The following instance of their cunning is worth relating : I had placed 

 some artificial retort-shaped nests for Eave Swallows on my barn at Ipswich, 

 with the hopes of attracting these birds. In 1904, English Sparrows were seen 

 about my place in the early spring, but they were very wary and attempts to 

 shoot them were unsuccessful. In July, I suspected that they were breeding in 

 one of the artificial nests, but any bird in the vicinity disappeared at my ap- 

 proach. When I ascended to the nests all was quiet, even when I rapped them 

 sharply, and I concluded that I was mistaken. Several days later, however, I 

 concluded to take the nests down, and not until they were removed from their 

 fastening was there any sign of life within. Then a young Sparrow attempted 

 to get out. During all this time no chirping or outcry of any kind was made, 

 and the parents were not to be seen. I found four nearly full-grown young 

 within. These actions on the part of both young and adults were certainly 

 very different from what we should expect in native birds. John Burroughs ^ 

 describes a similar instinct of deception and concealment on the part of the 

 Cowbird. He speaks of finding the nest of a Song Sparrow containing a young 

 Cowbird as well as several young Song Sparrows. On jarring the nest slightly 

 the Sparrows opened their mouths, but the Cowbird lay low. 



The English Sparrow is here to stay. It cannot be exterminated, but its 

 numbers should be kept down in country districts by destroying its nests and by 

 the judicious use of the gun. 



APOCRYPHAL SPECIES. 



I Muscicapa minuta Wils. 

 Small-headed Flycatcher. 



No specimen of this supposed species is extant, and it is known only from 

 1 John Burroughs : Outing, vol. 45, p. 246, 1904. 



