56 OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
trouble in money matters. Captain R. H. Pratt, of 
the Carlisle Indian School, noting that the sparrows 
were driving all the other birds away from the school 
grounds, offered a penny a set for all the eggs which 
should be brought to him. 
The little Indian students, two hundred or more of 
them, made a raid on the grounds, and brought so 
many eges to the captain that he began to think he 
should have no money left. He thought, “Surely there 
cannot be so many nests as there are sets of eggs.” So 
he set himself to work to find out the secret. 
It had not taken the boys long to learn that Mrs. 
Sparrow would lay right along, just like a hen, if the 
nest itself were not destroyed. ‘The eggs were taken 
out cautiously as often as four or five were laid, and 
the industrious little Indian claimed his reward. It 
was a good scheme at money-making, but the alert 
superintendent soon found it out, and of course took 
back his offer. There was no more bounty given for 
sparrows’ eges that summer. 
California farmers complain a good deal about the 
linnets.1- One man whom we know spent whole days 
in March killing the linnets, because he thought they 
were eating up his peach buds. In late summer we 
went over to see him, and what do you think he was 
doing? We found him pulling off half of the little 
peaches and throwing them on the ground. 
“Good morning, sir,” we said, stopping at the 
1 Housefinch, Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis. 
