74 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
become hardy, or before the birds have begun roosting 
under eaves, in sheds, barns, and other protected places, 
many of them also perish. These are about the only 
weather accidents which interfere much with them. 
6. The bird is a prolific breeder, and an omnivorous 
feeder. It will take dead floating minnows out of the 
water, and catch insects on the wing as well as on the 
ground and on trees; it will eat grass as well as grain 
and salt pork, and, if necessary, it will nest on all kinds 
of trees. 
A bird thus equipped is certainly one of the fittest 
of all creatures that ever spread wings to all kinds of 
winds, and as long as it lives under the favorable con- 
ditions just described it will continue to multiply until 
it has filled the land. 
Injury caused by the House Sparrow. — To the gar- 
dener and agriculturist the bird does about as much 
good as harm. I know that it has done much, for 
instance, to control the box-elder leaf roller on my 
trees. To the bird lover it is mainly objectionable 
because by its bold, pugilistic, and mobbing proclivities 
it drives away the more desirable and beneficial native 
birds. | 
How can the Sparrows be kept in Check ? — The com- 
plete extermination of the bird is an impossibility, and 
state or public bounties will only deplete the respective 
treasuries, without harming the sparrow to any great 
extent.t 
1See ‘‘ Extermination of Noxious Animals by Bounties.’? Year 
Book of the Department of Agriculture, 1896. 
