28 Gbe Warbler 



bird is utterly useless. In the suburbs and country districts it is a decided 

 nuisance and has to a great degree driven away our native song birds. The 

 bird is very abundant in all parts of the city and has a breeding season ex- 

 tending from March to August, during which time a pair will raise several 

 broods, some authorities claiming as many as five or six. The nest is a 

 rather bulky and coarse affair, but carefully lined with an abundance of 

 feathers and is placed in any convenient place about buildings, under the 

 eaves or cornices, behind blinds or in any nook or crevice which can be 

 utilized. Since the bird has become so abundant and has been more or less 

 disturbed and persecuted in its breeding season, it is taking to trees for nest- 

 ing sites. A dense spruce or other evergreen answers the purpose best and 

 are in many places freely utilized, and there is every indication that the next 

 ten or twenty years will see the bird use trees freely for nesting purposes, 

 even resorting to forests and other locations far removed from buildings. It 

 will then be a much more difficult matter to keep them in check than it is 

 now. While they nest solely about buildings one can by persistent watch- 

 fulness effectually check their increase by shooting the parent birds or de- 

 stroying their nests and eggs, but to do this one must be diligent. They 

 will rebuild a nest and lay another clutch of eggs in a remarkably short time 

 after being broken up. At Smithtown, Long Island, last year I found six 

 pairs nesting in the rafters of, a small boat-house. I tore down all the nests 

 and destroyed the eggs, all of which were on the point of hatching. Two 

 weeks later I visited the same place and found the nests all rebuilt with full 

 complements of eggs, some of which were just beginning to hatch. Nests 

 and eggs were again destroyed. Six days later I found the nests all rebuilt 

 and in some of them one and two eggs were already deposited. They were 

 again destroyed, but the birds did not rebuild them again. 



The English Sparrow lays from four to six eggs to a set, seldom as few 

 as four and occasionally as many as seven. Five and six are the usual num- 

 ber. Both parents participate in building the nest, incubating, and feeding 

 the young when hatched. 



In 1889 the United States Agricultural Department issued a 405 page 

 bulletin (No. 1) on the English Sparrow. It was written by W. B. Barrows 

 under the direction of C. H. Merriam, Ornithologist of the Department.- In 

 this work the bird is treated impartially from all points of view, as many as 

 3100 persons scattered all over the country having contributed facts and 

 opinions regarding the bird's merits and demerits. A careful survey of all 

 the facts brought out by this extensive work shows that the bird is universal- 

 ly condemned, and justly so. Every ornithologist of the country condemns 

 him, as any one must who makes a study of his habits. No law in any of 

 our States any longer affords him protection, and he should be slaughtered 

 without mercy. 



The food of the English Sparrow consists almost wholly of grain, seed 



