Many inquiries similar to the above have been received. 

 Most of these inquirers have been referred to Farmers' Bulletin 

 383, by Ned Dearborn, published by the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, on "How to 

 destroy English Sparrows," and Farmers' Bulletin 493, issued 

 by the same Bureau, entitled, "The English Sparrow as a 

 Pest," by the same author; but so many complaints continually 

 come in and so many requests for methods of destroying the 

 sparrow have been received, that at last it has become necessary 

 in self-defense to publish a circular in reply to these complaints, 

 giving the desired information. 



The old-time question as to whether the sparrow is a pest or' 

 not continually comes up. The sparrow rears many young, 

 and as the young are fed to some extent on insects they con- 

 sume quantities of insects in a summer. Were the sparrows in 

 our city parks destroyed, probably we should have serious 

 trouble with certain leaf-eating insects before native birds could 

 be attracted to these parks in any numbers, but few native 

 birds can nest in the parks while the sparrow remains. 



The greatest injury resulting from the introduction of the 

 sparrow is the displacement of native birds and the consequent 

 increase of injurious insects which the sparrow does not eat. 

 The leopard moth, for example, which was introduced into this 

 country in the latter part of the last century, has become very 

 destructive where sparrows are most numerous. The control 

 of this insect is difficult and expensive, as it is a borer, remain- 

 ing most of the time within the wood. Apparently the sparrows 

 do not disturb it, and where they are numerous and native 

 birds are, therefore, scarce, this moth is very injurious, par- 

 ticularly in and around Boston, New York and other large 

 cities. When the moth spreads out into the country, where 

 woodpeckers and other native birds are numerous, it has, thus 

 far, made no headway. Woodpeckers dig into the burrows 

 where the larva hides, and other birds catch it when it leaves 

 its burrow and crawls about on the bark. Had we kept out 

 the sparrow and instead encouraged and attracted other birds 

 into our cities we might have been spared the destruction of 

 many shade trees by the leopard moth. 



The sparrow, however, has many friends who seem to believe 

 that it does only good and no harm whatever. To those who 



