88 THE HOUSE SPARROW. 



illustrious ancestor, cannot be fully appreciated, and 

 must certainly be treated by the friends of the sparrow, 

 with a due degree of reverence and respect. The first 

 lady, writing from New York City, over a rather eupho- 

 nious cognomen, says, concerning the advisability of 

 cultivating the English sparrow, 



" I deem it not only a pleasure to add my testimony 

 against them, but a duty, to use every means in my 

 power to aid those who desire to banish to the city 

 the little pests, as much the enemies of our birds as ever 

 tories were of whigs." 



Then, after briefly alluding to the reason which the 

 defendants of these birds give for allowing them to in- 

 crease, namely, their destruction of the worms which 

 infest trees and vegetables, she says, 



"Can it be that they do not know that our native 

 birds do the same? In a city where the latter will not 

 live, the sparrow may have his work to do, but certainly 

 in no other place, and for no other reason could any one 

 ever care to raise them, for they are neither handsome 

 nor songsters. That they do drive away all other birds 

 from any locality which is so unfortunate as to have 

 them for inhabitants is to me, and any close observer, 

 an indisputable fact. Some years ago, several of the 

 neighbors brought large numbers of them to this place. 

 In an incredibly short time not a forest bird was to be 

 seen or heard. This was borne impatiently for a year 

 or so, until the guns of more than one lover of justice 

 and friend to the birds, drove the usurpers from the 

 place. Since their banishment the forest birds have re- 

 turned in full force, and once more their sweet notes are 

 heard around the home of him who made the study of 

 them and their habits his life-work." 



