92 BIRDS OF SWOPE PARK 



It is a comparatively small matter for the home owner to 

 prevent any English Sparrow from raising a brood on his own 

 premises. If all should do this for a few years, the problem 

 would be solved. The few interested families, however, can- 

 not destroy all the sparrow nests for the whole neighborhood, 

 and it thus becomes almost useless to bother with the few nests 

 on his own premises. It should be a finable offense to permit 

 English Sparrows to nest on the premises. 



Another way to solve the English Sparrow problem is to 

 poison them during the winter with Strychnia sulphate. Farm- 

 er's Bulletin, Number 493, of the Department of Agriculture, 

 gives good directions for doing this. 



Next to the English Sparrow, the Robin is the most numer- 

 ous bird about our homes. The nesting of the Robin is not 

 disturbed by the English Sparrow, and they have thus had op- 

 portunity to multiply undisturbed save by the cats. 



The Robin is valuable, but of hardly the economic value 

 of the Purple Martin or of the Bluebird. The latter feed upon 

 a greater variety of noxious insects and are not destructive to 

 fruit. The Robin is destructive to fruit and feeds largely on 

 angle worms from the ground. The destruction of the angle 

 worms is of questionable value. 



If we would only provide suitable nesting boxes and then 

 eliminate the English Sparrow, there is no reason why Blue- 

 birds and Purple Martins should not be as numerous as are 

 English Sparrows and Robins. 



