The Seamy Side of Bird-Life 



I 



I DO not know how many song-sparrows 

 there are in this township say one hun- 

 dred pairs for a guess. Each of these 

 will lay on an average five eggs every spring. 

 If all the eggs of every pair hatched and the 

 young survived, we should have next year two 

 hundred and fifty pairs, supposing all the par- 

 ents to have died. The second year a similar 

 success would furnish us with twelve hundred 

 and fifty pairs, and the third year our township 

 would contain over twelve thousand song-spar- 

 rows. So the increase would go on, by larger 

 and larger leaps, until soon the hosts would 

 hardly have room to fly, not to speak of finding 

 food. 



Experience shows that no such a thing hap- 

 pens. The census of song-sparrows, and of all 

 other birds, remains about the same, showing 

 that the births only equal the deaths. 

 ^49 So* 



