82 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



nearly destitute of foliage. In one of these trees are 

 two boxes, and in three of the others, one box each, and 

 although the occupants are close at hand and have 

 raised one or two broods in each of the boxes, yet the 

 trunks and branches of the trees, as well as the boxes 

 themselves, are completely covered by cocoons. In 

 speaking of the scarcity of our smaller native birds in 

 the same article, Mr. Purdie says, " I have been on the 

 Common nearly every day, and less often on the public 

 garden, for the past ten years, and have been a close 

 observer, and have kept a list of the native species 

 noticed. I am sorry to say, for I wish it were otherwise, 

 that our birds have wonderfully decreased in both 

 species and numbers. I miss their songs and other 

 notes. The big robin I except ; that bouncer of the 

 sod holds his own against all odds. Who has caused 

 this thing, but the pugnacious f ring ilia , now courted by 

 the city?" 



Mr. Dearie, also a resident of Boston, who is no less 

 remarkable for the extent than the accuracy of his ob- 

 servations, bears indubitable testimony to the truth of 

 the foregoing assertions. 



Dr. Coues, one of the leaders of ornithology in this 

 country, a gentleman who has done more to advance 

 this favorite branch of science than possibly any one else, 

 in the "Field and Forest" for May, remarks that, "Passer 

 domesticus, the nuisance, was introduced some years after 

 our last appeared, and now these rowdy little gamins 

 squeak and fight all through the city to our great dis- 

 gust. The introduction of these exotics clutters up 

 ornithology in a way that a student of geographical dis- 

 tribution may deplore, and interferes decidedly with the 

 balance of power among the native species. Whatever 



