SPARROWS AT THE BOTTOM OF IT. 129 



and blue jays united in that work, though their 

 relations with each other bore the character of 

 an armed neutrality, always ready for a few hot 

 words and a little bluster, but never really com- 

 ing to blows. We never had the pleasure of 

 seeing a stranger among us. We might hear 

 him approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as 

 the eager listener fancied he might alight in 

 sight, there would burst upon the air the screech 

 of a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied 

 by the precipitate flight of the whole clan, and 

 away would go the stranger in a most sensational 

 manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough 

 to drive off an army of feathered brigands. This 

 neighborhood, if the accounts of his character 

 are to be credited, should be the congenial home 

 of the kingbird, tyrant flycatcher he is named ; 

 but as a matter of fact, not only were the smaller 

 flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the 

 king himself was never seen, and the flying 

 tribes of the insect world, so far as dull-eyed 

 mortals could see, grew and flourished. 



Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, 

 however, revealed one thing, namely, that any 

 small bird who appeared within our precincts 

 was instantly, without hesitation, and equally 

 without unusual noise or special publicity, driven 

 out by the English sparrow ; and I became con- 

 vinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for 



