86 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



ties, is not wanting. In an anonymous article to the 

 "Forest and Stream" for June, 1877, a few thoughts as 

 to the advisability of permitting these birds to increase 

 in their present alarming proportion, are given. The 

 writer, after alluding to the eminent service which they 

 perform in the destruction of the insects which prey 

 upon the foliage of trees, in municipal districts, and in 

 the removal of refuse materials, argues that we can very 

 well dispense with the few birds which were accustomed 

 to visit such localities before the introduction of the 

 former. He, then, after a brief allusion to the verdict 

 of Mr. Galvin, of Boston, says in unequivocal language : 

 " Where the English sparrows congregate or breed in 

 numbers, there soon our native birds are wanting. We 



O 



have time and again witnessed the fierce pugnacity of 

 the imported birds. Among themselves they are ex- 

 ceedingly quarrelsome, but let a bird of a different genus 

 but show himself, and the fury of the whole sparrow 

 community is turned upon the helpless interloper; they 

 chase him hither and thither, giving him no rest until 

 he is banished from the neighborhood. The sparrows 

 prefer the city streets, where their repulsive food is 

 plenty, and select the public parks for breeding, but 

 their marvellous increase has driven hordes of them out 

 to the surrounding suburbs, where their presence is not 

 needed, the numberless insectivorous and worm-eating 

 natives generally being there amply sufficient to cope 

 with the vermin. We have in mind a locality on the 

 banks of the Hudson, not many miles from the heart 

 of ]N"ew York City, a spot noted for its forest trees and 

 picturesque loveliness. A very few years ago it was the 

 abiding place of many of our most melodious song 

 birds. The wood-thrush sent his metallic notes ringing 



