84 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



easily beats them on their own ground. He survives 

 against the competition of birds which seem to us 

 more estimable in every way. The very fact that he 

 survives proclaims his superiority over them, and 

 shows that our criterion is not the one by which na- 

 ture judges. We like the birds which serve our pur- 

 pose. We admire the brilliant plumage of the jay, 

 cardinal and goldfinch. We love the mellow notes of 

 the woodthrush, and of the veery, the clear, rollicking 

 outpourings of the bobolink, the musical love song 

 .of the brown thrasher, the cheerful scolding of the 

 wren. We are fond of the birds who busy them- 

 selves taking the insects out from among our grain 

 and from off our fruit trees. We can only understand 

 the value of the bird to nature when he is valuable to 

 us. So, because the English sparrow does littfe that 

 is to our advantage and much that is to our annoy- 

 ance, he is in our estimation a reprobate and an un- 

 ending nuisance. 



All sensible bird-men must clearly acknowledge that 

 he is a very undesirable citizen. I write the above 

 sentence to show that I realize the whole duty of the 

 bird-lover in the matter of the sparrow. This pestifer- 

 ous creature should be exterminated by traps, by grain 

 soaked in alcohol, or strychnia, by fair means or foul. 

 But personally, I am taking no share in his destruc- 

 tion. Any bird-lover, after reading the foregoing ac- 



