CAROLINA DOVE 61 



English Sparrows can make a nest of any 

 available material in any available place, and a 

 living where other birds would starve. They do 

 not, as is sometimes said, fight away other birds ; 

 they have no need to do so. It is only necessary 

 for them to take possession of all nesting sites 

 in advance of others. Rapid multiplication does 

 the rest. Changes in environment do not disturb 

 them; accidents to the nest are mere episodes of 

 the season, since they rear several broods in suc- 

 cession, and if one mate is killed, its survivor 

 immediately finds another; and they are undis- 

 mayed by our most rigorous weather. 



The most remote settlements and even coun- 

 try homes are no longer safe from invasion. 

 Only the sparsely inhabited mountains and Trop- 

 ical Florida are free from this pest, and it may 

 be only a question of time and further settlement 

 till they too shall be colonized. Sparrow traps 

 do much to mitigate the annoyance, but we may 

 never again hope to hear around our homes the 

 true chorus of native songsters undisturbed by 

 the loud, harsh Sparrow chirping. 



CAROLINA DOVE — MOURNING DOVE 



A boy once told me that '-every dove has one 

 drop of human blood in its body, and if you kill 

 one it'll haunt you." Such a superstition must 

 have come, I think, from the tender expression 



