A Saint Bartholomew of Birds 227 



destroy a whole family of friendly little birds, 

 and the members of civic organizations have often 

 turned themselves into cunning Borgias with the 

 same end in view. 



These visitors from over the sea have insisted 

 on living in close proximity to their worst enemy, 

 man, who has betrayed their trust and mobbed, 

 killed, and persecuted them in every conceivable 

 way, and done it in the name of bird protection. 

 The cry has been: "They drive away our wild 

 birds, rob their nests and even kill them." As a 

 matter of fact, there isn't a word of truth in the 

 charge ; man, the killer, has the monopoly in that 

 kind of sorry persecution and destruction. After 

 years of this treatment we are just beginning to 

 find out that the English Sparrow is a real help 

 in the struggle for existence and a beneficial bird 

 in our war with noxious insects. The Federal 

 Department of Agriculture is certainly in error 

 when it proposes to incite Boy Scouts and school 

 children in carrying out mob law against a bird 

 really deserving protection. That the public 

 press, somewhat generally, is protesting against 

 this proposed "St. Bartholomew Massacre" of 

 English Sparrows is most timely and may prevent 

 a modern enactment of Longfellow's "Birds of 

 Killingworth," which, if pulled off would be apt 

 to cause "the spirits of the wise to sit in the clouds 

 and mock us." It now looks as though the Eng- 



