DE. H. A. HAGEN ON THE ENGLISH SPARROW. . 151 



Dr. C. W. L. Gloger, in 1858, says : " The formerly much-abused sparrow is often an 

 impudent fellow, but he eats insects as long as they are to be found. With some pre- 

 dilection he collects leaf-lice from the buds of shrubs and trees and feeds his young 

 with caterpillars. Certainly the sparrows merits well the few cherries and grapes 

 which he steals, as he protects so many other fruits which he leaves untouched. In 

 former times people were short-sighted enough to hunt and kill the sparrow ; now 

 opinion has changed. All intelligent horticulturists especially will never persecute 

 the sparrow." 



Among the large number of books on horticulture, there is not one which even ex- 

 cuses much less commends its destruction. If the sparrows were injurious they would 

 be much more so for horticulturists than for farmers. The stomach of the sparrow 

 in fall or winter is rounded with seeds of weeds, which is certainly more than an 

 equivalent for the grain stolen in summer. 



These opinions are based upon observations made through a century and supported 

 by authors of acknowledged reputation, while the decisions of the "Nuttall Club" are 

 given only after the observations of a few years. I would only object to a few obser- 

 vations given in the report, the rest being sufficiently answered by the above extracts. 



The report states " the sparrows to be carnivorous birds, eagerly destroying and 

 devouring eggs and newly-hatched young of other birds." It is well known to every 

 naturalist what science understands by the term " carnivorous birds," and it is well 

 known that sparrows do not belong to them. This term as applied to the sparrow is 

 decidedly out of place in the report of an ornithological club. The other part of the 

 quotation reminds me of a quibble a century old. It was said that " the sparrow in- 

 vades the nests of pigeons, to cut open the crop of the young ones, and to feed upon 

 the grain contained in them when Tie needs it." Of course it was understood that he 

 never needed it. The report says further, " the decided preference for fruits and leaf- 

 buds [the last observation is an original one with the 'Nuttall Club'] renders them 

 decidedly a pest to horticulturists." As this statement, if true, would be alarming for 

 horticulturists, I should be very glad if the above quoted contradictory observations 

 of Bechstein and Gloger would find a place in some prominent paper or magazine 

 devoted to the interests of horticulturists. But I can give them some further con- 

 solation. It is, perhaps, not commonly known to what extent the horticulturists 

 here find it profitable to depend upon German horticulturists. In 1867, wishing to 

 send home a set of flower-seeds, I went to the most prominent dealers, stated my pur- 

 pose, and got the following answer: "We import all our seeds from Germany." In 

 1874, 1 was asked by a friend to send the seeds of the American native pine-tree. After 

 going around in Boston without success, I wrote to New York, Philadelphia, and Saint 

 Louis, and had from all the same answer. Now, when American dealers find it profit- 

 able to import seed from Germany, and the German dealers find it profitable to export 

 them, it is rather obvious that the sparrows, so exceedingly common in Germany nur- 

 sery-gardens, cannot be a pest there, and consequently will not be a pest here. A 

 book commending the persecution of sparrows would at this day be considered by 

 intelligent German horticulturists as a curiosity. 



The argument suggested in the report of the " Club," that the help of the sparrows 

 is not needed for the suppression of the canker-worm, because various effective devices 

 exist for the protection of the fruit and shade trees, decidedly loses its value, when 

 summer after summer we have seen those devices applied with care, and in spite of 

 these the foliage was 'destroyed, except where the sparrows were present in sufficient 

 number to check it. Prominence has always been given to the alleged fact that the 

 sparrows drive off indigenous birds. According to my personal observation in Cam- 

 bridge, and other suburbs of Boston, this is not true. When I arrived here in 18G7, I 

 was surprised by the scarcity of birds in such a largo number of beautiful gardens and 

 splendid grounds. The following spring I was able to understand why birds were so rare 

 here, as I saw and heard morning and afternoon around and very near to the museum, 

 and elsewhere, the shooting of every kind of bird. I saw boys plundering the nests of 



