482 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
Turning now to the question of hog cholera, that modern scourge which 
has caused losses of millions of dollars to American farmers, we find the 
evidence less direct but almost equally convincing. Single cases, and even 
some extensive outbreaks of hog cholera have been traced to the transfer 
of the germs from farm to farm on the boots of the laborer or the common 
farm vehicles and stable implements. The manure and mud of an infected 
hog pen must contain the germs of the disease. What more likely, more 
inevitable, more certain, than that Sparrows feeding on and in that mud 
should carry some of it away on bill and feet and so infect other hog yards, 
perhaps miles away? We do not know that the germs of hog cholera 
have ever been demonstrated from the mud on Sparrows’ feet, but we do 
know of more than one outbreak of the dreaded disease, from which all 
ordinary modes of infection were apparently excluded, but where English 
Sparrows were known to have passed freely in and out of the yards, and 
might easily have brought the infection from farms less than a mile away. 
We have no wish to condemn the Sparrow on mere suspicion, yet the known 
and proved evils which attend his presence are so real and serious, and the 
benefits claimed (very few of which have been proved) are so meager and 
insignificant, that it seems the part of common prudence for everyone 
interested in agricultural welfare and the beauty of country life to do all 
that can be done legitimately to exterminate this bird. 
The English Sparrow when once fairly established increases with 
phenomenal rapidity. Two broods at least are reared in a season, and 
usually three, while instances of four or five broods have been reported 
by competent observers. Moreover, the young seldom number less than 
four in a brood and the old birds are remarkably successful in getting 
them safely on the wing, so that in favorable seasons an immense number 
of Sparrows may be reared in a comparatively small area. Without 
quoting the sensational figures which are sometimes introduced we may 
say that a dozen pairs in a city will produce hundreds of thousands in the 
course of three or four years, and in making plans to exterminate Sparrows 
this remarkable fecundity must be reckoned with. The dangerous character 
of the Sparrow has been recognized generally throughout the country for 
nearly thirty years, and various suggestions for restriction and extermina- 
tion have been made, but the hopelessness of the attempt to entirely 
exterminate is now almost universally conceded. Several of the states 
early resorted to bounties, not only without good results, but with dis- 
astrous effect upon our native birds. In 1887 Michigan enacted a bounty 
law allowing one cent apiece for Sparrows in lots of not less than twenty- 
five. At a subsequent session of the legislature this act was amended 
so that the bounty was increased to two cents apiece and the birds might 
be presented in lots of ten or more. Some of the defects of the earlier 
bounty laws were also corrected and the law remained on the books until 
repealed in the spring of 1901. The legislature of 1905, however, reenacted 
practically the same bounty law, with the proviso, however, that it should 
take effect only in such counties as saw fit to adopt it by a majority vote 
of the Board of Supervisors. Very few of the counties appear to have 
made the act effective, in fact, up to the present time we know of but three 
counties in which such bounties are paid. 
We have not space to go into the merits of bounty laws in general. It 
is sufficient to say that except under very unusual conditions they serve 
no useful purpose, but, result in only a slight reduction of the numbers of 
the animals attacked, while they invariably produce more or less corrup- 
