CHANGE OF PUKLIC OPINION. 35 



perabundant, the Sparrows readily adapt themselves to circumstances, 

 and, as they are always tasting of everything eatable, they frequently 

 acquire a strong liking for some particular fruit or vegetable previously 

 unnoticed. There is scarcely a vegetable product grown by farmer or 

 gardener which the Sparrow can not eat, and there are very many to 

 which it is disastrously partial. Even the most superficial examina- 

 tion of the evidence printed in this volume will satisfy auy candid man 

 of the truth of the statement. 



And this brings us to the consideration of those checks to the Spar- 

 row's increase which are due solely to the influence of man, and which 

 may be denominated artificial. 



DIRECT INFLUENCE OF MAX IN CHECKING THK INCREASE OF THE SPARROW. 



Public opinion. — During the first fifteen years of the Sparrow's col- 

 onization of America, say from 1855 to 1870, the hostile influence of 

 man was practically nothing. A few protests from intelligent natural- 

 ists who opposed its introduction ; a few warnings from naturalized 

 citizens who had spent many years fighting the bird in their native 

 laud — this was all. On the other hand, scores of enthusiastic u bene 

 factors" of the country were urging its introduction in increased num- 

 bers, and aiding and protecting those already brought, by every possible 

 means, even to the enactment of city ordinances and police regulations. 

 During the next decade, however, more opposition was developed, and 

 although Sparrow enthusiasts were still providing nesting boxes by the 

 thousand and food by the barrel in many cities where Sparrows were 

 few, still there was no little retrenchment in some of the cities where 

 they had become abundant, and the disposition among practical citi- 

 zens to let the invaders shift for themselves steadily increased. Toward 

 the latter part of this period a few laws which had especially protected 

 them were repealed, but in very few places were active measures adopted 

 looking to the limitation or suppression of their increase. 



It is impossible to mark the precise date at wiiich the tide of public 

 opinion turned against the Sparrow. There has been no sudden change, 

 but a gradual falling away in the number of Sparrow adherents. One 

 after another of its loudest advocates has become silent, and a few have 

 honestly admitted their change of opinion. 



In most cases such change of views has not been the direct result of 

 nny one argument, oral or written, but of the gradual accumulation of 

 such an amount of evidence that at last it became irresistible. A man 

 who has seen thousands of Sparrows at work on his own wheat-fields 

 is convinced that the bird is not altogether harmless, whatever may 

 have been his previous theories on the subject. If he subsequently 

 suffers from its attacks upon his fruit, his preconceived notions of 

 Sparrow habits are still further modified ; and when he finds that native 

 birds decrease as the Sparrows increase, he is constrained to believe 

 that possibly some of those who have testified to similar experiences 



