THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 41 
sentimentality of people who build bird-houses and throw out crumbs for “the 
dear little birdies’’, and then care nothing whether honest birds or scalawags get 
them. Such people belong to the same class as those who drop kittens on their 
neighbors’ door-steps because they wouldn't have the heart to kill them them- 
selves, you know. 
Taken near Columbus. 
: Photo by the Author. 
NOTHING IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM. 
A “QUARRY HOLE’ FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS BUT NOW ENTIRELY GIVEN 
OVER TO THE NOISY FOREIGNERS. 
The increase of this bird in the United States is, to a lover of birds, simply 
frightful. Their fecundity is amazing and their adaptability apparently limit- 
less. Mr. Barrows, ina special report prepared under the direction of the Gov- 
ernment, estimates that the increase of a single pair, if unhindered, would 
amount in ten years to 275,716,983,608 birds. 
As to its range, we note that the subjugation of the East has long since 
been accomplished and that the conquest of the West is succeeding rapidly. 
It is only a question of a few years until it becomes omnipresent in our land. 
It requires no testimony to show that the presence of this bird is absolutely 
undesirable. It is a scourge to the agriculturist, a plague to the architect and 
the avowed and determined enemy of all other birds. It is, in short, in the 
