English Sparrow iig 



plies as fast as the rabbit, so that he is rapidly 

 inheriting the earth? Even children who have 

 never been out of the slums know at least this 

 one bird, this ever-present nuisance, for he 

 chirps and chatters as cheerfully in the reeking 

 gutters as in the prettiest gardens ; he hops with 

 equal calm about the horse's feet and trolley 

 cars in crowded city thoroughfares, as he does 

 about flowery fields and quiet country lanes; 

 he will pick at the overflow from garbage pails 

 on the sidewalk in front of teeming tenements 

 and manure on the city pavements with quite 

 as much relish as he will eat the fresh clean seed 

 spilled by a canary, or cake-crumbs from my 

 lady's hand. Intense cold he endures with 

 cheerful fortitude and as intense mid-summer 

 heat without losing his astonishing vitality. 

 Is it any wonder that a bird so readily adaptable 

 to all sorts of conditions should thrive like a 

 weed and beat his way around the world? 



Now that he has gained such headway in this 

 country his extermination is practically im- 

 possible, since a single pair of sparrows might 

 have 275,716,983,698 descendants in ten years! 

 It is foolish to talk of ridding the land of these 

 vermin of birddom. The conditions that kept 

 them in check at home are lacking in this great 

 land of freedom and so we Americans must 

 pay the penalty for ignorantly tampering with 

 nature. 



