CONCLUDING REMARKS. 105 



plishing the task of holding the enemy in check, Phila- 

 delphia could do no more than follow the example of 

 her sister cities. 



A little knowledge, a little forethought as well as 

 foresight, would have gone a great way towards solv- 

 ing the problem, and staying those proceedings which 

 have caused the country to he overrun by these hardy, 

 fearless creatures, which, by their ravages, are consum- 

 ing our very substance a thankless return for the many 

 kindnesses and favors which they have received. 



If our native species had been as carefully nourished 

 as the sparrows have been, and been permitted to avail 

 themselves of the protection of man by building unmo- 

 lested in close proximity to his dwelling the same as 

 they, the necessity for the sparrows would not have 

 arisen. The law owed them a protection, but it refused 

 to enforce it. If they took up their abode upon man's 

 domains, their homes were desecrated, their treasures 

 destroyed or fearfully mangled, and the parents them- 

 selves inhumanly sacrificed for no other cause than 

 daring to defend their rightful property. Everybody 

 seemed to fancy that he had an inborn right to wage 

 incessant warfare against these happy creatures of the 

 field and grove. Farmers, who should have protected 

 them for services freely bestowed, became their most 

 inveterate persecutors. The active kinglet, the warbling 

 vireo, and the sturdy woodpecker, in their frequent visits 

 to the blossoms and the bark of trees, for the insects 

 and larvae that lurked insidiously within, had been mis- 

 judged, and made to pay the penalty of death for 

 their cleverness. This was undoubtedly an age of igno- 

 rance and superstition. 



But times have changed. By the light of science, 

 8 



