80 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



observations, remarks in a late number of the "Forest 

 and Stream," in giving bis objections to the English 

 sparrow: "1. Tbey have no personal attractions, except 

 their tameness. 2. They are practically useless, and 

 are no longer needed. In Cambridge, those trees which 

 are properly tarred have no canker-worms on them, 

 because the female moth is wingless, and, if prevented 

 from ascending the trunk, cannot lay her eggs near 

 leaf-buds. Many others of the elms here are largely 

 stripped, but I have not seen an English sparrow eat 

 one canker-worm, though both the birds and caterpillars 

 are abundant. The birds may have been useful on their 

 first arrival from Europe, but they are too much pam- 

 pered to be so now, at least to any satisfactory extent. 

 3. They destroy fruit blossoms. 4. They are often quar- 

 relsome, and sometimes drive away other useful birds, 

 as I can positively testify to from my personal observa- 

 tion." 



H. A. Purdie, Esq., of Boston, whose reliability as an 

 ornithologist is unquestioned, in a communication to 

 the "Boston Daily Advertiser," July 80, 1877, confirms 

 Mr. Minot's statements in part. He says, "All over the 

 boles of the elms, maples, lindens, and other trees might 

 be seen crawling the larvae or caterpillars of the tussock, 

 plumed or vaporer moth, also known as the white- 

 marked orgyia, Orgyia leucostigma. They had descended 

 from the branches where since May they have been feed- 

 ing, and many were spinning about themselves their 

 temporary home or cocoon. In a few days the com- 

 pleted cocoons were to be seen by thousands," etc. 



Then, in reply to some rather sweeping assertions 

 which appeared in the columns of the "Journal and 

 Transcript," and "Forest and Stream," in which the 



