No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. 145 



even killing rabliits, pheasants, partridges and half-grown 

 fowls. Such cats are largel}- responsible for the fact that 

 many of the ground-breeding and bush-habiting birds in our 

 neighborhood have been killed or driven away. Careful 

 investigation will show a somewhat similar condition in 

 many neighborhoods. For this there is only one remedy, 

 — these cats must be exterminated. 



Twenty 3^ears ago the English sparrow would have been 

 placed first on the list, but it is not now so serious a 

 menace to our native birds as then. The conditions for its 

 increase are not generally so favorable as they then were, 

 and its enemies are more in the ascendant. It should not 

 be tolerated, however, by any one living in the country 

 who prefers the presence of our many beautiful and far 

 more useful native species. If its presence is tolerated, it 

 is likely to drive out all those native birds that nest in or 

 about buildings or in bird houses. It also annoys many 

 other birds, and drives them from the neighborhood of our 

 homes. I have now driven it out of this neighborhood, 

 but its former presence accounts for the absence of wrens, 

 bluebirds, phcebes and swallows, which no doubt once bred 

 here, and ma}' now be induced to return. The sparrows — 

 according to the testimon}' of many observers — do not kill 

 the native birds and their young to the extent that they did 

 some years ago ; but they often destroy the nests of other 

 birds, and they still persist in following or mobbing birds 

 of other species, and compelling them to move on. If their 

 nests are destroyed and the bu'ds shot Avhenever occasion 

 offers, the survivors usually learn to keep away. 



In speaking of the gunner as an enemy of birds, it may be 

 well to except the honest sportsman, who complies with the 

 law, respects the rights of property and is intelligent enough 

 to know that it is for his own interest to protect all birds 

 from undue or illegal slaughter. We may except also the 

 scientific ornithologist, who kills birds only when necessary 

 to further the interests of science. In the present state of 

 ornithological science, there are very few men who should 

 find it necessary to kill many birds for this purpose. It is 

 the irresponsible gunner — boy or man, who shoots, in sea- 



