v " l l ,,^, xx | Bbbgtold, [ Study of the House Finch 73 



Sixteen percent of the eggs and young of the House Pinch were lost 

 on the writer's premises through destruction by the English Spar- 

 row, notwithstanding the writer's constant and persistent attempts 

 t(» destroy the latter species in his neighborhood. The writer has 

 personally witnessed English Sparrows going into the House 

 Pinches' nests, and has seen them throw out the young, these 

 nestlings having the heads peeked open by the Spin-rows before 



they were thrown out. The House Finch will often put up ;i. 



mild fight against the invaders, giving at the same time a very 

 characteristic squeak but the Finch is almost invariably beaten 

 in these hat ties. In many years' observations on this phase of the 

 Finch question, the writer has but once seen a Finch whip a Spar- 

 row. In the early years of this study, before it was undertaken 

 systematically, the writer lot a greal many nests, eggs and young 

 of the Hone Finch through the depredations of the English Spar- 

 row, and despite many and various schemes to drive away the 

 English Sparrow and help the House Finch, he did not succeed 

 until ;i powerful air gun was secured, with which the Sparrows were 

 finally decimated in his neighborhood. 



The first English Sparrows seen in Denver by the writer were 



noted at the Union Depot in L894, and then a few pairs only. 

 Today, the writer believes, there are in this city, estimating along 



lines similar to those used in estimating the House Finch (comparing 

 numbers for numbers) more than one half a million English Spar- 

 rows. 



It would thus seem self-evident that this exotic sparrow has 



flourished in Denver since L894, and has Keen in no way prevented 



bythe House Finch from increasing. On the contrary, the evidence 

 gathered by the writer is overwhelming that the English Spat-row 

 overcomes, and is superior to, the House Finch in the biologic 

 Struggle. That it is the winner in this fight, many of our citizens 

 realize; hut. they do not realize that it brings aboul aretardation 

 of the spread of a native species, whose help to the community as a 

 weed destroyer is of far greater value than is any lienefit accruing 



from the English Sparrow as a scavenger, or through its habil <>f 



feeding its nestlings partly on animal food. 



