BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 67 



peared more slowly, but in the end almost as completely. These, I believe, are 

 all the birds which became nearly or quite lost to us during this period ; but of 

 the smaller and weaker species that still remain, the Redstart is probably the 

 only one which has not seriously diminished in numbers and become greatly 

 restricted in respect to local distribution. Of the larger and stronger birds, 

 the Robin, Oriole and Flicker, do not seem to have been affected in any way 

 by the coming of the Sparrows, while the Crow, Bronzed Crackle and Rose- 

 breasted Crosbeak are much more numerous and widely distributed within the 

 city proper now than they were thirty years ago. 



Respecting the precise methods by which our Bluebirds, House Wrens and 

 Swallows were dispossessed of their ancestral nesting places and, with other 

 equally attractive and useful species, driven nearly or quite beyond the confines 

 of our cities and larger towns, my personal experience does not wholly agree 

 with that of certain observers who have testified strongly against the Sparrow. 

 For example, I have only once seen him attack, with obvious anger or malice, a 

 fully mature bird of any other species, and I believe him to be too crafty — and 

 perhaps also too cowardly — to often resort to such open violence, although that 

 he does so occasionally is beyond all question. Ordinarily, however, he appears 

 to compass his ends by means which in some respects are so subtle and obscure 

 that it is not easy to fathom them. Obviously he derives a great advantage 

 from his exceeding prolificness and from the fact that he is nearly everywhere a 

 permanent resident. Even before he had become abundant in Cambridge the 

 Bluebirds, House Wrens and Tree Swallows, returning from the south in spring, 

 found him in full possession of their nesting places, for to these he turned his 

 first attention. Possession, in bird, as well as human, law weighs heavily in the 

 balance. Nevertheless the species just irientioned did not, in most cases, aban- 

 don their long established haunts without making the most determined efforts to 

 retain them. They struggled, however, against fearful odds and with a foe too 

 insidious and persistent to be successfully opposed. Not that it was difficult to 

 evict the Sparrows from the bird-houses, olive jars and hollow apple trees in 

 which they had begun their nests, for the cowardly crew fled ignominiously 

 before the first onslaughts on the part of the legitimate tenants, but the latter 

 discovered in the end that, whereas "they may take who have the might," it is 

 equally true that only " they may keep who can." The Sparrows collected by 

 dozens about each box or hole, chattering derisively and doing whatever else they 

 could to keep the mother Bluebird, Wren or Swallow in a state of perpetual irri- 

 tation and alarm. If her mate appeared, or if she herself sallied out to attack 

 them, they would instantly scatter and disappear, only to return again shortly 

 afterwards. Whenever she ventured forth in quest of more nesting material, or 

 of food for herself or young, they would enter the hole and tear the nest to pieces. 



