SHALL WE PAY OUR DEBT? 367 



the one worst menace of the birds which are work- 

 ing out our salvation to-day. As fast as these 

 cardinals carried nesting material to the rose bush, 

 and left to gather more, the English sparrows flew 

 in, took the material, and carried it high in an elm 

 tree in the corner of the lot, where they were nest- 

 ing. In helpless rage I was compelled to stand 

 back and see my best loved birds, these particular 

 and peculiar friends of mine, driven from a nesting 

 location I should have given any reasonable sum 

 to protect. I could do nothing, since any scheme 

 I could devise to frighten away the sparrows would 

 cause the cardinals to desert the location. After 

 two days of struggle, that is exactly what they did. 

 The story is the same from every keen observer of 

 bird life who is capable of testifying intelligently on 

 the subject. Unless the other birds succeeded in 

 outwitting the sparrows by some particular clever- 

 ness, nothing escaped the ravages of the sparrows 

 at the Cabin, south, except the wren, whose house 

 they could not enter. Aside from their incalculable 

 destruction of other small birds in a season, it 

 may be recorded that English sparrows are birds 

 of disgusting habits. They do not care to exercise 

 themselves enough to take food in a legitimate 

 manner, preferring to feed from garbage cans, to 

 eat the food provided for the chickens, and to steal 

 from seed bins and granaries. They have no song; 

 they are the lousiest birds with which I ever came 

 in contact; they are polygamists, four or five 



