ENGLISH SPARROW. 69 



injury to the fruit crop and especially to the grain, but most pernicious it becomes by 

 driving away almost all the other useful birds and by robbing them of their nesting 

 places. Its destruction is a necessity, its extermination an impossibility. To naturalize 

 it in other countries is more than unwise." 



That the Sparrow eats the flower buds of fruit trees to a great extent is a well- 

 known fadl, but this does not need much consideration. Enough will remain to insure 

 a good crop. Only when the Sparrows visit the orchards in swarms, as they often do, 

 the damage done to the fruit crop becomes very serious. To strawberries, peas, and 

 grapes they do more harm than any of our native birds. The flower lovers see w^ith 

 great distress their first spring flowers, the crocuses, tulips, and pansies, robbed of their 

 blossoms by the Sparrows. 



Where these feathered anarchists become abundant it is scarcely possible to enjoy 

 the presence of other birds in the garden. The nesting boxes deviced for Bluebirds, 

 Martins, Wrens, Titmice, Great-crested Flycatchers, and other hole breeders are soon 

 taken possession of, the Sparrows having usually occupied them before the rightful 

 owners arrive from their winter-quarters. Should one or the other pair of these birds 

 be successful in occupying one of them, the Sparrows also know how to act in such 

 cases. They seem to have learned by experience the truth of the saying: "Union is 

 strength." If one pair does not succeed in dislodging the rightful owners, they violently 

 call in their harsh, noisy way for help. In a very short time quite a number of 

 Sparrows appear, attacking the denizens of the box, and after a hard fight they are 

 victorious. With great noise and much ado they take possession of the home of the 

 native songsters. This I have frequently observed, and the Bluebirds and Martins are 

 suffering especially from these foreign intruders. 



In many cases protection has been afforded the pugnacious but interesting House 

 Wren and several of our Titmice by supplying them with boxes the entrances to which 

 are too small to admit the Sparrow; but this does not suffice in all cases. 



Concerning the Purple Martin's contests with the Sparrow, I refer the reader to 

 p. 340, 341 of Vol. I of this work. 



They also injure other birds by throwing their eggs and young out of the nests and 

 using the nesting material for themselves. Where they are common, they destroy many 

 nests of the Robins, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Vireos, Goldfinches, Painted Finches, 

 and Cardinals. Mr. Otto Widmann, of St. Louis, observed that they entered the nesting 

 boxes of the Martins in the absence of the owners, eating their eggs, and I have made 

 a similar observation in Milwaukee, where they destroyed the eggs of the lovely little 

 Chipping Sparrow. Every unprejudiced observer may see all this with his own eyes. 

 The same observations have been made in Germany and in England, and the friends of 

 the songbirds in those countries do not tolerate this tramp among the birds of their 

 gardens. Those of our birds not directly driven away by the Sparrows >are so much 

 annoyed by them that they also leave the parks and gardens. 



"There seems to be no possible escape from the conclusion," writes Mr. Walter 

 Barrows, "that the Sparrow exercises an important and most harmful influence on our 

 native birds. It is not claimed that in all cases where native birds have become less 

 abundant, or have entirely disappeared from town or farm, the Sparrow is the cause. 



