Its filthy habits, which injure buildings, vegetation and clothing, 

 constitute a minor annoyance, but its chief fault, as indicated 

 above, is the molestation and destruction in the breeding season 

 of harmless native birds of far more value to agriculture than 

 itself. It is not necessary to repeat here the overwhelming 

 testimony in regard to this that may be found in any of the 

 three volumes hereinbefore cited. My own experience is con- 

 vincing. During the last forty years I have seen it drive out 

 the great flocks of snow buntings that once fed freely in city 

 streets. I have seen it evict all species that nest in bird houses. 

 Where it once gets a foothold in the bird houses it drives out 

 all other bird tenants in the end. It destroys their nests, eggs 

 and young, and it has been known to destroy wantonly the 

 eggs, nests and young of many birds that do not nest in boxes. 

 It appropriates the nests of swallows, robins, warblers and other 

 birds, and has driven out swallows, martins and wrens from 

 large areas. The cliff swallows or eaves swallows and house 

 wrens formerly common in many parts of Massachusetts are 

 rare now in a large part of the State, and this can be attributed 

 directly to persecution by the sparrow. What has happened 

 in ]Massachusetts has occurred over large sections in other 

 States. In warmer regions than this, where the winters are not 

 so severe as here, and the sparrows increase rapidly in numbers, 

 the effect of their presence on native species is even more 

 marked. Mr. Robert Ridgway, the eminent ornithologist of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, has this to say of the sparrow in 

 southern Illinois: — 



The amazing increase of the so-called English sparrow has profoundly 

 disturbed the "balance" of bird life. Although introduced less than 

 forty years ago this species is now, without question, by far the most 

 numerous bird in the region of which I write, even if it does not exceed 

 in numbers all the native small passerine birds combined, not only in 

 the towns but on the farms as well. The effect on native birds is ex- 

 ceedingly well marked, for the foreign pest has literally crowded out, 

 or by its aggressive meddlesomeness driven away, from the abodes of 

 man those charming and useful native birds, the bluebird, purple martin, 

 barn swallow and cliff swallow. None of the native species likes its com- 

 pany, and, in winter, when one wishes to feed the cardinals, Juncos and 

 other native birds, it is necessary to feed many times as many of those 

 pernicious pests, thus vastly increasing both the trouble and the expense. 



