THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 315 



Prof. Wm. Robertson : I was a little inquisitive as to what the 

 lady would do with the sparrow. I would like to have everv 

 farmer buy a 22 rifle and provide a lot of cartridges and then let 

 the toy go after this nuisance. They will not have to go so far away 

 from home to hunt, their mothers will not be worrying all the 

 time, and they can stand on their door-steps and do their shooting. 

 You begin shooting these sparrows, and they will begin to move 

 off to your neighbors. We had the pest at our place, and I wanted 

 the boy to learn to handle a rifle : so I bought him a rifle and cart- 

 ridges, and he began shooting sparrows. I gave him at the same 

 time a book in regard to birds and cautioned him not to shoot any- 

 thing we wanted there, but it was but a short time before a neighbor 

 wanted to know if the boy could come over to his place and shoot 

 sparrows. I told him I would like to catch myself driving the 

 sparrows back to nly place after I had once got rid of them. We 

 do not meddle with the other birds, but we keep the rifle handy, 

 and when a sparrow comes around chirping the boy steps out and 

 picks him oft'. If we do not get rid of the sparrows they will increase 

 to such an extent that they will drive all other birds away. 



Mr. Emil Sahler : A boy using a rifle will shoot somebody 

 accidentally. The thing to use is a short gun and No. 9 shot. 



Mr. A. J. Philips : Mr. Peffer tried that, and when he came 

 to figure it up he found he had damaged the trees $10 worth and 

 had done ten cents worth of good. 



Mr. Oliver Gibbs : I w-ant to go on record as being a friend 

 of that little brown bird. I have no criticism to offer upon the paper 

 that was read by the lady who has just taken her seat. I was very 

 glad to observe that while she states some of the faults of the English 

 sparrow she does not read an indictment against him and ask to 

 have him punished. Xow one or two facts : I know from my own 

 observation in places where I have lived it will not drive away the 

 robin, the wren or even the yellow bird. The sparrow is a pugna- 

 cious little fellow, and he takes care of himself. I have lived in 

 Prescott, Wisconsin, five years, and the first year I did not meddle 

 much with the birds myself, but there is a lady in the house who 

 could not stand the racket around the eaves, and I would see her 

 stepping under the eaves and poking down the nests with a pole. 

 The second year I saw her doing it occasionally, and now all the 

 birds in town know it is unsafe to build on that house, and they 

 avoid it. Just the same as with the jack rabbit, the very moment 

 he is born into the world if a greyhound comes along, he will hide. 



Prof. Washburn : Do you think he ought to be protected ? 



Mr. Gibbs: I think he can take care of himself. (Laughter). 

 He is in business on the business streets, and that is where he con- 

 gregates, but he does not congregate there in such numbers in this 

 country as to give any reasonable prospect that he is sfoiner to be a 

 daneerous quantity. If you are goine to be troubled about his 

 possible increase in the numbers stated in arithmetical progression, 

 I could tell you that in the same length of time the codfish will be 

 so thick in the Atlantic ocean that steamships cannot cross from Xew 

 York to Liverpool. (Laughter.) 



