NOTES BY THE WAY. 183 



remember to have seen so many of certain kinds 

 notably the social and the bush sparrows. The latter 

 literally swarmed in the fields and vineyards, and as 

 it happened that for the first time a large number of 

 grapes were destroyed by birds, the little sparrow, in 

 some localities, was accused of being the depredator. 

 But he is innocent. He never touches fruit of any 

 kind, but lives upon seeds and insects. What at- 

 tracted this sparrow to the vineyards in such num- 

 bers was mainly the covert they afforded from small 

 hawks, and probably also the seeds of various weeds 

 that had been allowed to ripen there. The grape- 

 destroyer was a bird of another color, namely, the 

 Baltimore oriole. One fruit-grower on the Hudson 

 told me he lost at least a ton of grapes by the birds, 

 and in the western part of New York and in Ohio 

 and in Canada, I hear the vineyards suffered se- 

 verely from the depredations of the oriole. The 

 oriole has a sharp, dagger-like bill, and he seems 

 to be learning rapidly how easily he can puncture 

 iruit with it. He has come to be about the worst 

 cherry bird we have. He takes the worm first, and 

 then he takes the cherry the worm was after, or 

 p ather he bleeds it ; as with the grapes, he carries 

 none away with him, but wounds them all. He is 

 welcome to all the fruit he can eat, but why should 

 he murder every cherry on the tree, or every grape 

 n the cluster ? He is as wanton as a sheep-killing 

 og, that will not stop with enough, but slaughters 

 tvery ewe in the flock. The oriole is peculiarly ex 



