244 SOME COMMON LAND-BIRDS. 



and, except the first three, none of these are beneficial. Like 

 the shrike, the others are winter emigrants from the North 

 and do no helpful work while they are here. 



Indeed, the shrike is one of our most useful birds, for 

 he is a champion sparrow killer. We have no bird so 

 utterly depraved, destructive, and altogether odious as the 

 English sparrow. Aside from all the other harm he does, he 

 is estimated to eat or destroy not less than five million dollars' 

 worth of grain and fruits yearly. Any one who makes one 

 English sparrow live where there were two before does more 

 good than the man in the proverb who set himself to raising 

 grass. We ought to thank any bird that devotes his time to 

 thinning the ranks of this pest. 



It has long been well known that the great northern shrike, 

 though a shy bird, naturally averse to the society of man and 

 even of his own kind, is a regular visitor to the parks 

 of great cities and to town and city gardens where sparrows 

 resort. Though not visible every day and all the time, like 

 some birds, he is much more commonly seen there than in 

 the unsettled country. 



In my own neighborhood he first became conspicuous a 

 few years after the English sparrow arrived, and his entrance 

 into city life in this vicinity seems to have dated from 

 about that time. Though never an abundant bird, he has 

 become a regular instead of a rare winter visitor, and is still 

 rare, so far as my experience goes, a few miles from town. 

 One city church surrounded with hedges and trees, the favor- 

 ite resort of sparrows, is his headquarters also; and it is not 

 uncommon while passing the place, to see him make a dash 

 among them and drive them screaining in all directions. How- 

 ever, it was only recently that I realized that he had reduced 

 sparrow-hunting to a science. 



