THE ENGLISH SPARROW QUESTION 73 
1. There was certainly room for a bird scavenger in 
our towns and cities, where back yards and streets are 
not kept clean. 
2. The construction of our houses, outbuildings, 
lumber sheds, railway depots, and other structures offer 
almost unlimited nesting facilities. 
3. We have decreased the nesting facilities of our 
native birds by cutting old trees and brush near towns 
and cities. Our severely cut lawns and parks, with 
few large trees and very little shrubbery, furnish suit- 
able nesting and roosting places for only a few native 
birds. 
4. The English sparrow, finding in the winter so 
much food in back yards, around elevators, mills, 
farm-yards and railroad yards, is not subject to the 
decimating dangers of migration, and being hardy and 
omnivorous, is seldom exposed to starvation during the 
winter. 
5. As it always lives near human habitations, it is 
little exposed to its natural enemies, except the house 
cat. Its wariness and cunning, and an experience 
extending over thousands of years, enable it to almost 
entirely avoid this arch enemy of bird-kind. I have 
never known an English sparrow to nest in a place 
readily accessible to cats. 
If a severe snow storm begins on Saturday, continues 
over Sunday, and blocks the street traffic on Monday, 
then life looks gloomy for the bold chirpers, and many 
of them are starved. If a severe rain or hail storm 
passes over a town at night before the young have 
