THE OOLOGIST 



87 



and came around the log piles in con- 

 stantly increasing numbers. They 

 would seize them on the wing as a 

 Kingbird takes its prey, fly to the 

 ground, break the hard wing shells 

 off, and swallow the insect. This be- 

 •came a regular habit with the spar- 

 rows and the number of locust beetles 

 '.that now infest the log piles is very 

 ;small as compared with former num- 

 bers, and very few escape the watch- 

 ful sparrows. 



Last spring some time in May, two 

 large colonies of the Big-winged ants 

 were hatched, one in a partly rotted 

 cross tie, the other in a locust post. 

 They came out by the thousand, but 

 the sparrows were promptly on the 

 job, and probably not one-fourth of the 

 .ants lived to get away from the local- 

 ity. I counted as many as fifty being 

 caught by a single sparrow before she 

 flew away to her nest and young with 

 them. Probably thirty or forty birds 

 were around feeding on them while 

 the ants were coming out. 



I had a good opportunity to watch a 

 nest containing a brood of six young 

 sparrows. I did not make any accur- 

 ate count, but fully two-thirds of the 

 food brought to these young birds con- 

 sisted of insects in various forms, 

 worms, beetles, moths and grasshop- 

 pers. 



1 am fully convinced that the Eng- 

 lish Sparrow has a growing i)redilec- 

 tion for insect food and fully agree 

 with Mr. W. H. Strong of San Jose, 

 California in the words of truth he 

 gives in the .January OOLOGIST con- 

 cerning their insectivorous habits as 

 personally observed by him. 



A great deal has been said about 

 their driving other birds away. I 

 cannot recall a single instance of this 

 that has come to my notice. Wrens 

 and Martins nest freely in various 

 parts of our town in close proximity to 

 the sparrows and they are rarely intei'- 



fered with. The sparrows will fight 

 desperately, but nearly always among 

 themselves. They doubtless take some 

 fruit and occasionally injure tender 

 garden plants, but the Robin, Catbird, 

 Grackle and a good many others 

 among our common birds can give the 

 sparrow pointers on fruit destruction 

 and general mischief. 



Too much that has been written 

 about the English Sparrow has been 

 founded on mere heresay, and not 

 from careful observation. This alone 

 will determine his value in the econ- 

 omic field, when the problem of how 

 to combat the ever increasing in- 

 croachments of insect pests is taxing 

 human ingenuity in an increasing 

 ratio with the growing scarcity of 

 many species of birds. 



Thomas H. Jackson. 

 West Chester, Pa. 



We believe that the House Sparrow, 

 commonly called the English Sparrow, 

 is the greatest vagabond known to us 

 among the birds. It should be de- 

 stroyed at every opportunity. Only 

 this day we have been compelled to 

 shoot several of these scamps to pro- 

 tect our Blue Martins from eviction. 



Editor. 



Birds of Prey, Northern Ohio. 

 F'or several years I have been study- 

 ing the birds of prey in this part of the 

 State. Within the last twenty years 

 the Bald Eagle has become scarce 

 here. I have not seen but one of these 

 birds in two years. Formerly they 

 were quite common. I have seen them 

 feeding in early Spring on the dead 

 body of a horse in common with crows. 

 For many years there was a nest of 

 this bird in the top of an old pine tree 

 that stood on the bank of Grand River. 

 The tree was taken down by a wind 

 storm some years ago. After that the 

 birds nested in a large oak over near 



