68 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



while not infrequently they perfoiated the eggs, or killed the young by pecking 

 holes in their tender skulls. All these deeds of aggression have been repeatedly 

 witnessed, and most of them have come under my own observation. 



In cases such as those just mentioned the Sparrows were evidently actuated 

 by a strong desire to obtain possession of the comfortable and secure breeding 

 places of the Bluebirds, Wrens and Swallows, but no such motive will account 

 for the similarly conducted forays which they have been known to make on the 

 nests of Warblers, Vireos and even of the smaller Flycatchers. I am of the 

 opinion, however, that the.se and all other birds which build nests unsuited to the 

 Sparrow's use have never been maliciously persecuted by him to any serious 

 e.xtent, and that such of them as have withdrawn from the places which he most 

 frequents must have done so chiefly because of influences that he e.xerts indi- 

 rectly and, no doubt, quite unintentionally. For one thing, I believe that his 

 harsh and insistent voice is discordant to their ears, and that they are annoyed 

 and discouraged when, as so often happens, it drowns their own sweet and musi- 

 cal notes. Assuredly this must be so if, as can scarcely be doubted, they appre- 

 ciate and enjoy their own music or that of their mates. Again, the Sparrow 

 overcrowds most of the localities which it inhabits, and, being constantly present 

 there, devours, almost before they ripen, very many kinds of seeds and berries 

 which formerly attracted and nourished other and infinitely more desirable seed- 

 and fruit-eating birds. With the sources of supply on which insectivorous birds 

 depend, the Sparrow does not, however, interfere to any appreciable extent ; 

 although he occasionally catches and devours small insects, and in June habit- 

 ually feeds his young on the lan'as of the canker-worm whenever they can be 

 easily obtained. 



I am quite aware that the House Sparrow continues to have friends and 

 defenders who, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, deny that 

 he has had anything to do with the local disappearance or diminution of any of 

 our native birds, or who maintain that such changes would, in any event, have 

 resulted from the rapid increase in human population and dwellings that has 

 taken place in most of our towns and cities during the past thirty years. With 

 those who have long held strongly to such opinions it is quite useless to argue, 

 since they have become so hopelessly imbued with prejudice as to be unwilling, 

 if not unable, to appreciate the significance and weight of the testimony bearing 

 on the opposite side of the question ; but for the benefit of the younger genera- 

 tions, who may be assumed to be open to conviction, yet not fully informed 

 respecting the past history of the case, it is certainly worth the while to revert 

 to the definitely established, if almost forgotten, fact that up to the time when 

 the House Sparrow became numerous in Boston, Bluebirds, House Wrens, Tree 

 Swallows, and several other kinds of birds which have long ceased to occur 



