jBtote^ from jFtelD mh ^tutip 



Trapping English Sparrows 



That I may not be considered heartless, 

 let me first say that I am known as a lover of 

 birds; but each year that adds to my acquain- 

 tance with the English Sparrows, brings my 

 wrath against them nearer to the boiling- 

 point. 



If they only went about their own business, 

 living their own lives, one could forgive their 

 disagreeable, insistent noise, and even forgive 

 the expense they entail by their depredations 

 in the chicken-yard; but they seem to have 

 only mean traits and, certainly, they are 

 pleasing to neither eye nor ear. 



When I hear people called tender-hearted 

 who plead in favor of the English Sparrow, I 

 cannot help feeling that they must live where 

 there is a sad scarcity of our more attractive 



birds. Not that I doubt their tenderness of 

 heart, only it seems to me that they cannot 

 have had opportunities to observe this Spar- 

 row among communities of other birds. There 

 may be exceptional individuals but, as a whole 

 in my experience, the English Sparrows have 

 really vicious natures; I know they drive 

 away and harass other birds. 



They, and of late the Starlings, have 

 appropriated all the holes in the old apple 

 trees, they promptly take possession of nearly 

 every bird-box I make, or in the few cases 

 where Bluebirds or Wrens have succeeded in 

 starting a home, the Sparrows try to oust 

 them; failing in this, they pester and harass 

 them nearly to death: and this, even, when 

 they have a home and family of their own. 



From what I have seen, I believe I am 

 justified in saying that the English Sparrows 



ARTIFICIAL RUBBISH HEAP IN WHICH THE PHOTOGRAPHER WAS CONCEALED 



WHILE MAKING THE ACCOMP.^NYING PICTURES OF ENGLISH SPARROWS 



Photographed by A. L. Princehorn 



(2") 



