MJce * Mo&er (S^rJen 



sheltered spots, in trees near the house, out of cat 

 reach, for the universally and unjustly despised Eng- 

 lish sparrows. We take ordinary wooden boxes and 

 by adding partitions form various little apartments, 

 for even sparrows like private rooms and, having 

 once appropriated them, hold and defend their prop- 

 erty against all intruders. 



After five years of intimacy and unprejudiced, 

 careful investigation of the English sparrow, I have 

 not found to be true one thing their detractors say. 

 And they do not chase other birds away. 



I have attracted all the sparrows I can to my 

 garden and I have more robins, j uncos, thrushes, 

 catbirds, chickadees, nuthatches, hermit thrushes, 

 Phoebes, orioles and song sparrows than can be found 

 anywhere else within miles of the Wilderness. The 

 sparrows live on terms of greatest amity with all 

 the other birds their quarrels being confined to 

 their own family. 



And as for quarrelsomeness, the nearest approach 

 to actual dueling I've ever witnessed was between two 

 robins. For sheer peevishness and peckingness, none 

 surpass the white-striped headed sparrows of high 

 degree, while even the dear chickadee is remarkably 

 quick of temper and snippety. 

 186 



