42 THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 
words of Dr. Coues, “a nuisance without a redeeming quality.” Altho we 
assent to this most heartily, we must confess on the part of our race to a certain 
amount of sneaking admiration for the Sparrow. And why, forsooth? Be- 
cause he fights. We are forced to admire, at times, his bull-dog courage and 
tenacity of purpose, as we do the cunning of the weasel or the nimbleness of the 
flea. He is vermin and must be treated as such, but—give the Devil his 
due, of course. What are we going to do about it? Wage unceasing warfare 
as we do against mice and snakes. ‘There is no ultimate issue to regard. ‘The 
House Sparrow is no longer exterminable, but he can be kept within limits. No 
doubt there will be English Sparrows in cities as long as there are brick-bats, 
but the English Sparrow in the country is an abatable nuisance. He can be 
shot, and he ought to be. There are no English Sparrows about my present 
home, in a suburb of Columbus. A sensible and determined neighbor has plied 
the shotgun for several years and as a result Bluebirds, Chipping and Field 
Sparrows, Woodpeckers of all kinds, Warblers, Robins, Blue Jays, ete. are 
plentiful hereabouts. I prefer Bluebirds myself. 
The Sparrow exhibits a most cosmopolitan taste in the matter of nesting 
sites. ‘The normal half-bushel ball of trash in the tree-top is still adhered to by 
some builders, but the cavity left by a missing brick, a Woodpecker’s hole— 
deserted upon compulsion—or a throne upon the scale-pan of Justice—done in 
stone upon the County court-house, and mercifully blind—will do as well. Of 
late the choicest rural sites have been appropriated, and the cliffs once sacred to 
the gentle Swallow, now resound with the vulgar bletherings and maudlin 
mirth of this avian blot on nature. 
