THE OOLOGIST 



17 



seemed to be making imaginary circles 

 in the air. Then she would step side- 

 wise along" the limb and do the same 

 thing again and then sidewise again 

 in the other direction and repeat. I 

 finally discovered the cause to be a 

 slow moving insect about an inch long 

 that was lazily buzzing around some 

 inches above and of which she was 

 evidently a little afraid, but female 

 curiosity partly counteracted the fear. 

 The sidestepping along the limb de- 

 pended upon which side of her head 

 the bug approached too closely. 



I also saw a Cape May Warbler on 

 October 28th of this year, (a late day 

 for a Cape May by the way), taking 

 her morning bath in an unusual man- 

 ner. There had been a heavy frost 

 the night before and the morning sun 

 striking the tops of the trees first soon 

 put them in a wet and dripping con- 

 dition. The Warbler was seen to 

 nestle and flutter about in a cluster of 

 cherry leaves, then to another and 

 another and so on through all the top 

 of the tree. Becoming sufficiently wet 

 she flew to a dry twig and dried her- 

 self in the usual way. 

 Painesville, Ohio. . A. Doolittle. 



Now Swat The English Sparrow. 

 We are told that it is the part of 

 wisdom, for the poultry keeper to 

 "swat the rooster" after the breeding 

 season is past, unless the bird be a 

 very valuable one. Now comes the 

 California Fish and Game Commis- 

 sion, and declares its intention to swat 

 the pestiferous little English Sparrow. 

 In this it should have the hearty co- 

 operation of every poultry breeder in 

 the state. The only thing about the 

 sparrow that counts in its favor is 

 its never-say-die quality, and against 

 this it has a multitude of evil things 

 set at its door. In the poultry yard, 

 and around the home, it is an unmiti- 

 gated dirty little nuisance. It is a pro- 

 lific breeder of its kind, and wherever 



its twitter is heard the songsters 

 which we like to hear and see, and 

 which it would be a crime to kill, lose 

 no time in vacating the neighborhood, 

 giving it upto the hordes of sparrows 

 who rob even the little chickens of 

 their food, and are afraid of nothing 

 that walks, files, or swims. Recently 

 the State Commission «3sued the fol- 

 lowing announcement, which, as we 

 have said, should be welcomed by 

 every poultry breeder in the state: 



The Fish and Game Commission, to 

 which is delegated the function of 

 protecting and preserving the wild life 

 of the state, and has declared war on 

 the English Sparrow. Throughout the 

 United States this bird has proved to 

 be a pest and many eastern cities have 

 waged war against it for many years 

 past. Here in California, as else- 

 where, the English Sparrow is not 

 only filthy in its habits and destruc- 

 tive to crops, but in addition drives 

 cut the insectivorous and song birds 

 v/hich are beneficial to man's interests. 

 The campaign to be instituted by the 

 Commission will probably constitute 

 the first united effort toward this end 

 to be made by any state in the Union. 

 A leaflet giving methods of identifying 

 English Sparrows and means of de- 

 stroying them will soon be issued. In 

 addition a statewide campaign of pub- 

 licity will be undertaken to encourage 

 a united effort to rid California of this 

 bird pest. A week will be set aside 

 during which everyone will be asked 

 to co-operate in the destruction of 

 sparrows and all of the deputies of the 

 Fish and Game Commission will be 

 set to work killing sparrows and di- 

 recting others in the work. California 

 Fish and Game Commission. — Pacific 

 Fanciers Monthly. W. A. Strong. 

 San Jose, Cal. 



The best way to destroy the English 

 Sparrow is to trap it. Continual and 

 consistent trapping will ultimately re- 



