THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



41 



sentimentality of people who build bird-houses and throw out crumbs for "the 

 dear little birdies", and then care nothing- whether honest birds or scalawags get 

 them. Such people belong to the same class as those who drop kittens on their 

 neighbors' door-steps because they wouldn't have the heart to kill them them- 

 selves, vou know. 



Taken near Columbus. 



NOTHING IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM. 



fhoto by the Autlior. 



QUARRY HOLE FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS BUT NOW ENTIRELY GI\'EN 

 OVER TO THE NOISY EOREIGNERS. 



The increase of this bird in the United States is, to a lover of birds, simply 

 frightful. Their fecundity is amazing and their adaptability apparently limit- 

 less. Mr. Barrows, in a special report prepared under the direction of the Gov- 

 ernment, estimates that the increase of a single pair, if unhindered, would 

 amount in ten years to 275,716,983,698 birds. 



As to its range, we note that the subjugation of the East has long since 

 been accomplished and that the conquest of the West is succeeding rapidly. 

 It is only a question of a few years until it becomes omnipresent in our land. 



It requires no testimony to show that the presence of this bird is absolutely 

 undesirable. It is a scourge to the agriculturist, a plague to the architect and 

 the avowed and determined enemy of all other birds. It is, in short, in the 



