tHi OOLOQISt 



153 



mens. L could sit up on the edge of 

 the bed and do this work and it helped 

 some but Mr. Pilquist has had only 

 three years' experience collecting and 

 did not find all of them. I could go 

 over the same ground and find as many 

 following him right up, but I have 

 been at it all my life, and I claim that 

 1 know how it is done, even though 

 my hearing is impaired in old age. 



Mr. Barnes, 1 have collected in 13 

 different states, and this particular 

 spot beats any place I ever saw. I 

 thought we would be a little late, but 

 they had a heavy storm down there 

 about ten weeks before we got there 

 and this destroyed many nests so they 

 were building new ones and most all 

 sets we took were fresh, and 1 made 

 fine specimens of them, small holes, 

 you bet. I don't want anything else. 

 I have taken some extraordinary fine 

 sets and would like to mention them 

 to you. I took here a fine set of five 

 with runt egg of Grey-tailed Cardinal. 

 In all my collecting I never took over 

 five of the Red-headed Woodpecker. 1 

 took a set of six. I also found three 

 sets of Western Mourning Dove, also 

 took two sets of three White-fronted 

 Dove in New Mexico, a set of 1 4 of 

 Verdin fine nest with set. We took 

 Bullocks, Arizona and Hooded Oriole, 

 House Finch, Purple Finch, Western 

 Lark Sparrow, found these nesting 

 four or five feet up on horizontal limb 

 out to the end along highway and field, 

 a beautiful nest. We saved many 

 nests, Blue Quail or Mexican Quail, 

 White Neck Raven, Harris Hawk, two 

 sets of three each, found six sets, but 

 the others had young, Black Phoebe, 

 Ark. Kingbird, Western Mocking Bird, 

 White-fronted Dove, Western Mourn- 

 ing Dove, Western Grosbeak, Texas 

 Night Hawks, Senora Red-wing, sets 

 and nests. 



I had climbed a cottonwood sapling 

 for Arionza Hooded Oriole in topmost 



limbs. I got my fingers into the nest, 

 felt three eggs. My enthusiasm got 

 the better of my judgment so the wind 

 swayed me over. I could not lift my 

 climber out of wood so went over all 

 doubled up. The tree snapped off 

 eight feet up letting me fall 14 feet in 

 an irrigation ditch, thus the accident. 

 George W. Morse, 



Tulsa, Okla. 



COMMISSION FAVORS KILLING OF 

 ENGLISH SPARROWS 



Harold Bryant, Fish and Game Board, 

 Gives Reasons For Extermination 



Harold C. Bryant, member of the 

 California fi.^.h and game commission, 

 has contributed a signed article in the 

 teachers bulletin of the organization, 

 dealing with the life, habits and 

 destructive propensities of the Euro- 

 pean house, or English Sparrow,' 

 which is of interest , to the agricultur- 

 ists and horticulturists of the state. 



Mr. Bryant who is an expert in or-, 

 nithology, condemns the English Spar-' 

 row as one of the most ruinous pests 

 that the growers have to contend with 

 in California. In referring to the eco- 

 nomic status of the bird, he says in 

 his pamphlet that the United States 

 biological survey "has examined the 

 stomachs of thousands of house spar- 

 rows in collecting evidence as to the 

 relation of this bird to agriculture and 

 even in the few instances where the 

 species has been known to prey upon 

 injurious insects and weed seeds, the 

 good so accomplished is found to be 

 far overbalanced by the destruction 

 of cultivated crops." 



Destroy Growing Crops 



"These birds," continues Mr. Bry- 

 ant, "destroy fruit of every kind, buds 

 on cultivated trees, shrubs and vines, 

 and eat tender young vegetables, as. 



