74 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



Halifax, Nova Scotia ; and to several towns in Ohio, Wiscon- 

 sin, and Michigan. It was not until about ten years later 

 that the sparrow importers began to realize what a nuisance 

 they had inflicted upon their country. 



How the sparrows have spread. As sparrows are attracted 

 to grain-elevators, railroad freight houses and yards, it often 

 happens that they are locked up in freight cars, where they 

 frequently roost. When the cars are opened at their points 

 of destination, the liberated sparrows are at once at home 

 again, although they may have travelled hundreds of miles. 

 They also fly from town to town, along railroad tracks, and 

 when the smaller towns become crowded, they invade the 

 country as well. 



What they eat. If you have observed them for some 

 time, you must have noticed that they are not at all par- 

 ticular about their diet. In towns, they live chiefly on the 

 undigested grain they find in horse-droppings, but they 

 will also eat all kinds of kitchen scraps, buds of trees 

 and shrubs, berries and fruits, grain on the field, different 

 insects, except hairy caterpillars, and anything that is eat- 

 able. I have even observed them fishing. One day in 

 June, 1895, as I was sauntering along the docks * of the 

 Milwaukee River, near its entrance into Lake Michigan, I 

 noticed a considerable quantity of small pieces of wood and 

 bark slowly drifting towards the lake. The water was very 

 turbid and had a foul smell ; and a large number of fishes 

 from two to three inches long were floating dead on the 

 surface. Wherever a dead fish came near a piece of wood 

 or bark, the sparrows would alight on it and seize the 

 fish ; some eating their catch on shore, others apparently 

 carrying it off to their young. Often a sparrow would 

 alight on so small a raft that he had to keep his wings 

 in motion, while he picked up the desired minnow. That 



Observations. Are they all grown for the sake of the flowers? 



