84 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
easily beats them on their own ground. He survives 
against the competition of birds which seem to us 
more estimable in every way. The very fact that he 
survives proclaims his superiority over them, and 
shows that our criterion is not the one by which na- 
ture judges. We like the birds which serve our pur- 
pose. We admire the brilliant plumage of the jay, 
cardinal and goldfinch. We love the mellow notes of 
the woodthrush, and of the veery, the clear, rollicking 
outpourings of the bobolink, the musical love song 
of the brown thrasher, the cheerful scolding of the 
wren. We are fond of the birds who busy them- 
selves taking the insects out from among our grain 
and from off our fruit trees. We can only understand 
the value of the bird to nature when he is valuable to 
us. So, because the English sparrow does little that 
is to our advantage and much that is to our annoy- 
ance, he is in our estimation a reprobate and an un- 
ending nuisance. 
All sensible bird-men must clearly acknowledge that 
he is a very undesirable citizen. I write the above 
sentence to show that I realize the whole duty of the 
bird-lover in the matter of the sparrow. This pestifer- 
ous creature should be exterminated by traps, by grain 
soaked in alcohol, or strychnia, by fair means or foul. 
But personally, I am taking no share in his destruc- 
tion. Any bird-lover, after reading the foregoing ac- 
