"Our trees and shrubbery ha\e been noticeably free from 

 insects, due to the birds, especially wrens. At least a dozen 

 wren boxes were occupied about the house and grounds." 



R.'WMOND B. THOMPSON. 



"I am an enthusiastic follower of the rod and gun, and 

 ma\- take a shot at ducks in their migration to the South. I 

 ha\e not yet satisfied m3'self that the (ierman starling, so 

 called, is as bad as he is said to be. (They are scarce this 

 year, though.) However, whene\'er from my own observa- 

 tions 1 find him so, 1 will turn against him, as I hax'c done 

 against the English sparrow. 



"I ha\e watched the English sparrow closely since I 

 championed his cause before you and Mr. Baldwin, in the 

 .^tanwich Hall at a Farmers' Club meeting last spring. I now 

 believe the mischief he does offsets the good. English spar- 

 rows ate my transplanted seedling cabbage plants ; trans- 

 planted Celosia plants ; every shoot from a 25-foot row of 

 sweet peas, and about the same of garden peas, and never 

 left the wheat field from the time the grain began to ripen 

 until I had it in the barn. 



"They rested on the hay carrier track and infested the 

 poultry houses, where feeding was easy. I have destroyed 

 many old and young sparrows, besides their eggs and nests. 

 However, I have not seen them destroy another bird's nest or 

 dispossess a bluebird. In fact, in a dead tree trunk, a bluebird 

 and a sparrow occupied cavities on opposite sides, their 

 young making their flight the same week. 



",\t the request of the late Charles T. Wills I ha\'e been 

 feeding and protecting quail, partridge and small birds for the 

 past six or more years. Mr. Wills furnished the grain and I 

 the suet and meat diet, and 1 believe that the many large 

 fiocks of quail now in evidence can be traced directly to the 

 few birds fed and protected on this place. The Hungarian 

 partridge now spreading out, can be traced to the ten pairs 

 which Mr. Wills bought and had liberated about five years 

 ago. While harvesting our wheat this past July we started a 

 pair of old birds with nineteen young ones, only able to fl\- 

 about fifty feet. 



"I suggested to Messrs. C. S. and E. C. AMUs to-day that 



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