136 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



getting as large a series of English Sparrow's eggs as they can procure. 

 These eggs are handsome and show endless variations in markings, so 

 that the series would not be completed until the last egg of the last 

 English Sparrow had been secured. 



The third method for imposing sentence could best be accomplished 

 by the concerted action of the Audubon societies, and would likewise 

 accomplish a twofold purpose. English Sparrows can be dyed so as to 

 be as gorgeous, gaudy, or attractive as any of the foreign ? birds that 

 are now used in the milliner's art. If these societies will but start the 

 fashion, it will be but a very few years before collectors will have ex- 

 terminated the Sparrows as completely as they have the Little White 

 Egrets and Terns. 



A judicious combination of these plans would soon have its effects 

 in reducing an evil that is now spreading at an amazing rate. 



C. A. Reed. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW QUESTION, 



"Good morning, Doctor, may I trouble you to tell me where I can 

 get some of your Sparrow medicine"? The speaker was a middle-aged 

 gentleman and a school master. I gave him the desired information 

 and asked him how about it. "Well," he replied, "I didn't use to 

 agree with you about the English Sparrow, but I do now, with a ven- 

 geance. I put up a bird house near my home and almost shed tears for 

 joy, when this spring a pair of Bluebirds began building in it. The 

 Sparrows had paid no attention to it before, but the next morning after 

 the Bluebirds came, I counted 25 English Sparrows in the tree mobbing 

 them, and finally they gave up the unequal fight and I have not seen 

 them since. If it's a question of mob law between Sparrows and Blue- 

 birds, I'm for the Bluebirds every time. I had not seen a Bluebird for 

 20 years, and I am mad clear through. You are right on the Sparrow 

 question and I am with you from now on." 



My neighbor a few doors down the street called me in one spring 

 morning, with: "Say, do you know any way to get rid of these English 

 Sparrows?" We had a Robin trying to build in this apple tree close to 

 the window, but as fast as she brought material for the nest, the Eng- 

 lish Sparrows would steal it and carry it up into the pine tree. So 

 finally our Robin gave it up. With all the stuff covering the ground, it 

 is sheer cussedness in those Sparrows to steal the Robin's nest. We 

 want to get rid of the pests". 



My neighbor next door on the other side gave me the following 

 over the back fence one morning a little later that same spring. "Do 

 you know," he said, "what the English Sparrows are doing to our 

 Robins? Well, there is a Robin's nest in an elm tree close to the 

 shop, under the window where I work. I used to enjoy watching 

 them building and soon there were four eggs in the nest. Then just 



