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Bird - Lore 



bird diplomacy and foresight, as, while the 

 mother attended to the wants of the little 

 family, the male remained in the rear of the 

 house, keeping away all intruders, thereby 

 holding their domicile for future use. The 

 wise little bird well knew that if he did not 

 keep this watch, the Sparrows would avail 

 themselves of his temporary absence and 

 take possession. Could human reasoning 

 have done better? 



The young were now almost as large as 

 the parents, and we daily saw the united 

 family flitting around the house and yard, 

 even alighting on the rails of our back 

 porch. About the middle of June the old 

 ones began repairs to the original nest and 

 in the course of time began depositing the 

 second set of eggs, and now a repetition of 

 the above story began ; they were evasive 

 for some time; later a second little brood 

 was hatched, fed and left the home nest 

 like their older brothers and sisters. They, 

 too, remained in the poplars for a period of 

 a week or ten days, when suddenly, the 

 latter part of July, all of them — parents and 

 eight little ones — entirely disappeared and 

 we saw and heard no more of them until 

 the first week in September, when we again 

 heard their call and noticed a few among 

 he trees at different times. They evidently 

 came back to bid us adieu prior to their 

 autumn journey southward. 



Thus ends the story of our ' Pioneer Ten- 

 ants ' ; in return for a few hours' work and 

 trouble, we were rewarded throughout the 

 season with the presence of a pair of loving, 

 confiding little birds, and had the satisfac- 

 tion of seeing eight baby nestlings raised to 

 maturity on our premises; a little encourage- 

 ment will work wonders with the birds. — 

 Berton Mercer, Lansdoivne, Pa. 



The English Sparrow as an Evicter 



Bird-Lore is certainly to be congrat- 

 ulated for the quantity and quality of 

 the contents of the January- February 

 number. The articles are all interesting, 

 and those relating to nest-boxes are especially 

 so, and so timely that we may hope they will 

 result in making it possible for many 

 feathered infants to reach maturity that 



otherwise would have fallen prey to their 

 natural enemies. 



The English Sparrow as the natural enemy 

 of respectable birds is a good subject for 

 discussion in your pages, as the experience 

 of any of your readers who have really 

 discouraged these pests would be of much 

 interest and value to all of us not so suc- 

 cessful. Your correspondent from St. Louis, 

 Mo., gives (on page 17) a "simple and 

 effective way of keeping the English 

 Sparrow out of a Bluebird's box" that does 

 not agree at all with a recent experience of 

 my own. 



Last spring at my home in Cassopohs, 

 Michigan, two or more pairs of Bluebirds 

 were about the grounds for many days seek- 

 ing a place to nest, and engagingin unequal 

 warfare with the English Sparrows. I put 

 up three or four nesting- boxes in the trees, 

 and had the satisfaction of seeing the Blue- 

 birds explore them almost as soon as I had 

 left them; but, as soon as they made a move 

 toward building nests, the Sparrows would 

 get after them and drive them away, repeat- 

 ing the attack every time the Bluebirds came 

 back. I never saw more than a pair of 

 Sparrows actually engage in the fight, but 

 there were always several others present 

 uttering their impudent yelps and plainly 

 giving moral support that the poor Bluebirds 

 could not withstand. Except in one case, 

 the Sparrows did not nest in the boxes after 

 they had won possession of them. 



I made one bird-house according to 

 descriptions in the books and set it up on a 

 pole about seven feet from the ground, or at 

 just the height that your St. Louis corre- 

 pondent says would be preferred by Blue- 

 birds and unsatisfactory to English Sparrows. 

 It was by accident that I did so, as the height 

 was determined by the length of a scantling 

 I found available for use as a pole, and not 

 because I had ever heard that an English 

 Sparrow would avoid a nesting-place so 

 easily reached from the ground. Sparrows 

 and Bluebirds at once began a struggle for 

 its possession, the Sparrows winning of 

 course, and they immediately began build- 

 ing a nest in it. Each day for several days 

 thereafter, I raked out of that box a mass of 

 grass, leaves, twigs, etc. — almost enough to 



