158 KEPOET UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



unfortunate. Many kinds of birds not only give more variety, but they certainly 

 destroy insects of more species than a single one. If we protect our own native birds, 

 and especially if we cultivate groves of timber where they can find shelter, and ban- 

 ish hunting-dogs, guns, and traps, in a comparatively few years the balance of nature 

 must be so restored that insects will rapidly decrease, and again reach the normal 

 number that prevailed at the first settlement of the country. Besides, it is well known 

 that the English sparrow has become partially naturalized in a small section of 

 Nebraska. Some years ago, as I have learned from Hon. J. Sterling Morton, the 

 English sparrows were introduced into Nebraska City, and have multiplied to a con- 

 siderable extent, but the number of species of insects that they feed on, as has been 

 anticipated, has been found to be small. This, of course, could have been endured if 

 they were not so hostile to other birds, native to the soil, that do much better. 



"Another fact concerning these sparrows, not well known, is that they are only 

 partly insectivorous ; they are more granivorous than insectivorous, and in their na- 

 tive habitats they are often destroyed because of their destructive raids on wheat and 

 other grain seeds. They have, therefore, far less claim on our protection and care 

 than our own far more beautiful and more highly insectivorous birds. It is another 

 illustration of the fact that sometimes we go abroad for that which we have in greater 

 perfection at home." * 



From these representative opinions it will be seen that, to say the very 

 least, much doubt exists as to the real character of the English sparrow. 

 Under existing circumstances, therefore, it will pay the Southern planters 

 to hesitate long before introducing into their midst what may prove to be a 

 curse, and thus taking a step which they may long regret. My own ad- 

 vice is, after careful consideration of the subject, cultivate and protect 

 the native birds, and drop all thought of the English sparrow for the 

 present. Protect the native insectivorous birds, by putting a stop to 

 their destruction by ignorant individuals and by birds of prey. There 

 are two birds in particular which should always be killed on sight. These 

 are the blue-jay and the cow-bird. We quote from Professor Aughey 

 concerning these two bad characters : 



Among the birds most hostile to birds are the blue-jays. They rob the nests of 

 other birds of their eggs. Wantonly they often kill even the young and throw them 

 out of the nest. The increase of jays is, therefore, incompatible with the general in- 

 crease of insectivorous and other small birds, especially of those that nest on trees and 

 shrubs. It is hard for the naturalist to give up such a dandy among birds, but, as he 

 is only a blackleg in fine clothes, the feathered tribes are healthier and safer without 

 Ma society. 



Perhaps no bird causes such wholesale destruction among birds as the cow-bird. 

 Its habit of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds, one only in a nest, and leaving 

 them to be hatched out and nourished by the foster parents, to the destruction of their 

 own kind, merits banishment and death. Even crows and magpies do much less 

 harm to other birds than jays and cow-birds. 



In addition to doing away with these active enemies of the insect- 

 ivorous birds, the latter should be encouraged in every possible way to 

 nest around plantations. For the martins, native sparrows, and others 

 that will make use of artificial nesting places, boxes should be provided, 

 if possible. Children should be taught to protect, not to destroy them, 



* Any person desiring to study the subject further will find a complete bibliography 

 of the sparrow controversy in the Bulletin of the Hayden Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories, vol. v, No. 2, compiled by Dr. Elliott Coues. 



