114 BIRDS 



summer heat without losing his astonishing vitality. Eggs 

 have been found in nests in January, for he breeds at all 

 seasons of the year. Is it any wonder that a bird so 

 readily adaptable to all sorts of conditions should thrive 

 like a weed and beat his way around the world.'* 



Now that he has gained such headway in this country 

 his extermination is practically impossible, since a single 

 pair of sparrows might have 275,716,983,698 descendants 

 in ten years! It is foolish to talk of ridding the land of 

 these vermin of birddom. The conditions that kept them 

 in check in Europe are lacking in this great land of freedom 

 and so we Americans must pay the penalty for ignorantly 

 tampering with nature. To trap and poison, snare and 

 shoot them, as we are constantly advised to do, would be 

 to brutalize our human nature like the Prussians'. "Ye 

 are of more value than many sparrows." 



Sparrows were first imported into Brooklyn, in 1851, to 

 rid the shade trees of inch worms. This feat they accom- 

 plished there and in New York with neatness and despatch. 

 Everyone fed, petted, and coddled them then. It was not 

 until many years later that their true character came to be 

 thoroughly understood. 



But they kill no birds, and drive none from the United 

 States or Canada, so we may hope that, in the course of 

 time, our native songsters may pluck up courage to claim 

 their rights and hold their own, as many indeed already do, 

 learning from the sparrows the important lesson of adapt- 

 abiUty. 



The Vesper Sparrow 



To name this dingy sparrow that haunts the open fields and 

 dusty roadsides, you must notice the white feather on each 



