319 



Balance of Nature, and resulting in an enormous loss 

 that falls, especially, on farmers and horticulturists. 



GREAT ERRORS. 



The English Sparrow, twenty-five or thirty years ago, 

 was brought to Pennsylvania because it Avas believed 

 he would destroy insect pests which defoliated shade 

 and fruit trees, and attacked cultivated crops. Since 

 this bird has become established, not o-nly in Pennsyl- 

 vania, but generally throughout the United States 

 and Canada, it has been learned ho is a most undesira- 

 ble addition to our fauna. He devours cereals, fruits, 

 buds and blossoms of fruit, shade and ornamental 

 trees, as well as different kinds of garden produce. 

 He loves the tender buds of grape vines and their ripe 

 fruit. In the fajnous Erie grape belt of this State, it 

 is estimated that English Sparrows annually destroy 

 from $30,000 to $35,000 worth of grapes. 



INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS DRIVEN AWAY. 



These little feathered pests, great fighters that they 

 are, live continually about human habitations from 

 which they drive away numerous kinds of beneficial 

 birds that formerly did great service to the human race 

 by aiding to repress pestiferous insect foes that the 

 pugnacious, grain-eating Sparrow disdains to touch. 

 It is stated that no-t less than seventy-two kinds of 

 birds which are found throughout the wide ai*ea of this 

 continent, where this imy)orted bird nuisance is now 

 ensconced, have been di-iven by English Sparrows 

 from their old-timed nesting haunts about the habita- 

 tions of man. 



The people now want the English Sparrow de- 

 stroyed, and many favor a bounty for his mischiveous 

 head. Put such a method of exterminating this bird 



