Birds and the Fruit-Farm 313 



no sooner had the bluebirds removed, than Jenny, 

 with a twitter and unconcealed joy, rushed into the 

 bluebirds* late quarters and began hauling out 

 the nest, scattering it to the four winds and singing 

 at the top of her voice all the time. Having cleaned 

 the place out, she too departed. The English 

 sparrows had taken possession of two houses, and 

 as their numbers seemed at least obtrusive, one of 

 my household suddenly tore out the rude nests 

 they had made hoping to drive the birds away, and 

 one of the houses was taken down for a time. On 

 the next telephone pole, some distance away, I 

 had fastened yet another compartment house, 

 somewhat larger than the others. The English 

 swallows promptly took possession of this for the 

 remainder of the stimmer. We called it '^the 

 slimis. '* One pair of the British birds built a nest 

 in the open eaves of the north porch, and there 

 raised two lusty broods, whose shrieks for worms 

 could be heard way down in the cherry orchard. 

 I noticed that these English sparrows fed on in- 

 sects, worms, grubs, and the like, just like robins, 

 quite losing their habits of playing street scaven- 

 gers. Robins, wrens, bluebirds, flickers, wood- 

 peckers, king-birds, seemed ever quarrelling among 

 themselves, but I did not observe that the English 

 sparrows either gave or received blows. Perhaps 

 it is better to have English sparrows than no birds 

 at all. 



Orioles, blue jays, sparrows? The sparrow 

 family is said to comprise more than one-seventh 



