HIRDS OF MAINE. 133 



uiaiuly to the vicinity of towus. vilLages and cities. The few insects 

 they eat are niainh' such as liave been attracted to street lights, and 

 would have perished without the interference of the Sparrows. 

 Their food is chiefly vegetable matter, consisting in a great part 

 of the undigested portions of grain in horse droppings, although they 

 do not disdain bread, wheat and other delicacies which ma}^ be strewn 

 by friendly hands for their benefit. Being resident, they take pos- 

 session of the bird houses erected for the benefit of the Purple 

 Martin and Tree Swallow while these latter are south for the win- 

 ter, and upon the return of the rightful owners a fierce struggle for 

 the nesting place results, although the Martins usually prove 

 victorious. Were the Sparrows of an}^ great benefit their presence 

 could be endured, but they are not only useless, but noisj^, quarrel- 

 some, and often directly injurious, I have seen them in large 

 flocks, feeding on oats and wheat standing in the fields near 

 Bangor. Their huge filthy nests of straw and rubbish are placed in 

 every conceivable situation, from the limb of a tree or the shelf of 

 an electric street-light, to the cornice of a building or a hole in the 

 eaves. When present in numbers, they paint and bespatter 

 buildings with their filth. The very slight amount of good which 

 the}^ do by destroying injurious insects, would have beeu done far 

 better and without half the bluster b}' the native birds that these 

 foreigners have dispossessed. As regards distribution, we may 

 safely say they are found in every town, village and city through- 

 out the state. Recently while driving from Fort Fairfield to Lime- 

 stone in Aroostook County, I was surprised to notice from one to 

 three or more pair of these birds at nearly every country dwelling 

 w^hich I passed. They probably found abundauce of food during 

 the summer months, but when winter came they must either have 

 been fed by the inmates of the farmhouses, or forced to retreat to 

 the neighboring towns which were at least seven miles dis- 

 tant from some of the localities where the Sparrows were seen. I 

 can personall}' vouch to having seen the pests in every county in 

 the state. 



