THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATUBALI8T 



17 



and my principal reason, as a lover of birds, 

 has been, and is, that the English sparrows 

 drive away our own inure charming native birds. 

 That opinion has just been emphasized by 

 the following incident. J was passing down one 

 of our streets the oilier morning when I ob ier 

 ved lour birds in a state of great com motion on 

 the ground, kicking up, in fact, an awful dust ■ 

 the birds, being, as I soon ascertained, three 

 English sparrows and one Chipping sparrow, 

 Spizellasocialis. The poor little native bird was 

 being unmercifully attacked by the three more 

 robust immigrants, and I verily believe would 

 have been killed, but that my companion, a 

 lady, begged to be allowed to rescue it by driv- 

 ing its aggressors away. For myself, I confess 

 I should have been cruel enough to await the 

 issue of the conflict for the purpose of exem- 

 plifying my theory, whereas now, instead of a 

 charge of " wilful murder," I can only prefer 

 thai of "assault with intent." 



Vincent Clementi, B.A. 

 Petcrboro' May 9, 1881. 



Note. — The House Sparrow, (Passer Domes- 

 ticus) has been of good service since its intro- 

 duction into Canada. Previous to its arrival in 

 Montreal, it was almost impossible to keep 

 down the millions of house-frequenting spiders, 

 which during summer, festooned the interior of 

 our houses, and exterior of outhouses with 

 their webs. This nuisance is now lessened, as 

 the bird relishes the spider, and whenever one 

 of the latter shows itself, it is doomed. The 

 acclimatized sparrow has besides adopted the 

 flycatcher's system in obtaining its prey ; it 

 also imitates the woodpecker by holding itself 

 with its claws and tail against a wall, picking 

 from the interstices any insects lurking therein. 

 Before the house sparrow was liberated in Mon- 

 treal, an entomologist could, on a June morn- 

 ing's walk along the garden fences in the 

 western portion of the city, pick up probably 

 from twenty to twenty-five beautiful rare insects 

 for his collection. This cannot be done now, 

 as the sparrow destroys all insects whether 

 he eats them or not. This is the only fault we 

 have against him — that he makes no discrim- 

 ination in his selection — he kills as many 

 beneficial as injurious insects. We have seen 



this pugnaciouf little bird attack thelargi 

 tbern Cicada, holding it in it- beak wbil< 



insect made the etiriou- noise with it- drum-, 



which we frequently hear in tie- early pan <>i 

 September. The bird heard it, but the in 



noise was of no avail; t hi' sparrow plao 

 foot upon it and picked it to J »i' «-•-- . — Kn. 



TENACITY OF LIFE IN BIBD 



Deaii Sin, — Last fall, I received from the 

 Manitoulin Islands, a living Eagh — the | 

 Sea — Haliaeius albicilla), t" stuff. Wit 

 to kill it as quickly as possible, I procured a 

 strong acid poison irom a druggist, and gave it 

 a dose said to be sufficient to destroy its life in a 

 few seconds. After waiting tor half an hour, 

 I went out expecting to find it dead, but there 



he sat, as uprighl as usual. I gave the bird a 

 second dose and patiently awaited the result. 

 It had no more ellect than an evident disa . 

 ment in the appearance of water from it< 

 mouth. Then I gave it a large piece of meat 

 covered with arsenic and retired t.. rest, expect- 

 ing to find him still and ready to stufl next 

 morning, but to my surprise, when I went to 

 his cage, it stood as upright as ever, and luok- 

 ing none the worse. 1 had laudanum in the 

 house, and it occurred to me thai I could put 

 him in adeep sleep; therefore I gave the Eagle 

 one half ounce, which had no a] 'parent effect. 

 I then procured strychnine, of which 1 gave 

 him a large dose; in a short time it took ellect. 

 and the strongtrame which withstood the other 

 poisons had at last to succumb; it swayed with 

 violent convulsions, and as 1 stood looking on 

 its agony, I felt that I was the cause, and guilty 

 of a crime. A tew weeks ago I had occasion to 

 kill a great Horned Owl, (Bubo Virgimanus), 

 and remembering my former experience with 

 the Eagle, thought to try a more speedy method. 

 I took a revolver carrying a No. 22 cartridge, 

 which 1 fired close enough to penetrate the 

 centre of its body, and the only apparent effect 

 it had was merely to tip him oil' his perch. which 

 he afterwards regained. Four hours afterwards 

 1 found him still sitting there, appearing all 

 right. I tired the second ball forcing him Irom 

 his perch, which he did not afterwards regain, 

 yet he lived two days afterwards. On skinning 

 this bird I found that both balls passed through 

 his body. On the 27th May last, I had occa- 

 sion to kill another Horned Owl. and remem- 

 bering my former unsuccessful experience I 

 thought to give him a blow which would pro- 



