42 THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



words of Dr. Coues, "a nuisance without a redeeming quality." Altho we 

 assent to this most heartily, we must confess on the part of our race to a certain 

 amount of sneaking admiration for the Sparrow. And why, forsooth? Be- 

 cause he fights. We are forced to admire, at times, his bull-dog courage and 

 tenacity of purpose, as we do the cunning of the weasel or the nimbleness of the 

 flea. He is vermin and must be treated as such, but — give the Devil his 

 due, of course. What are we going to do about it ? Wage unceasing warfare 

 as we do against mice and snakes. There is no ultimate issue to regard. The 

 House Sparrow is no longer exterminable, but he can be kept within limits. No 

 doubt there will be English Sparrows in cities as long as there are brick-bats, 

 but the English Sparrow in the country is an abatable nuisance. He can be 

 shot, and he ought to be. There are no English Sparrows about my present 

 home, in a suburb of Columbus. A sensible and deterinined neighbor has plied 

 the shotgun for several years and as a result Bluebirds, Chipping and Field 

 Sparrows, Woodpeckers of all kinds. Warblers, Robins, Blue Jays, etc. are 

 plentiful hereabouts. I prefer Bluebirds myself. 



The Sparrow exhibits a most cosmopolitan taste in the matter of nesting- 

 sites. The normal half-bushel ball of trash in the tree-top is still adhered tO' by 

 some builders, but the cavity left by a missing brick, a Woodpecker's hole — 

 deserted upon compulsion — or a throne upon the scale-pan of Justice — done in 

 stone upon the County court-house, and mercifully blind — will do as well. Of 

 late the choicest rural sites have been appropriated, and the cliffs once sacred to 

 the gentle vSwallow, now resound with the vulgar bletherings and maudlin 

 mirth of this avian blot on nature. 



