INJURY TO GRAPES. 49 



A few reports also mention injury to either the seed or young plants 

 of mustard, spinach, hemp, flax, artichoke, salsify, cauliflower, carrot, 

 parsnip, tobacco, pepper, etc., while one report mentions serious injury 

 to tube-roses, another to tulips, and still another to sweet peas. It will 

 be seen from this summary that there is scarcely a garden fruit or veg- 

 etable which does not suffer, at least occasionally, from the attacks of 

 the Sparrow, although some garden products are much more seriously 

 injured than others. 



INJURY TO FRUITS. 

 INJURY TO GRAPES. 



Among fruits, grapes appear to suffer most, and, although many 

 grapes are raised without protection in places where Sparrows are con- 

 sidered fairly abundant, there is every reason to believe that sooner or 

 or later this bird will discover and injure them wherever its increase 

 is tolerated. It has been shown that grape buds are frequently de- 

 stroyed in the early spring, and the fact that one hundred and twenty- 

 seven observers, representing twenty-six States and the District of Co- 

 lumbia, now bear witness to injury to the ripening fruit, may well cause 

 apprehension among grape-growers who have not suffered any loss as 

 yet. 



In California, where grape culture is an industry of paramount im- 

 portance, the English Sparrow has taken firm root and is multiplying 

 and spreading with ominious rapidity ; and unless steps are taken to 

 wipe out the pest at the earliest possible moment the result probably 

 will entail a loss to the State of many thousands, if not millions, of dol- 

 lars. 



It must not be supposed for a moment that we have overlooked the fact 

 that other birds than the Sparrow eat grapes, and we are even willing 

 to admit that occasionally some of the damage done may have been 

 wrongly attributed to the Sparrow. This, however, does not justify 

 the claim made by some friends of the latter bird, that he is always, or 

 even frequently, innocent of this charge. It often happens that grapes 

 are destroyed by birds in places where there are no English Sparrows ; 

 and, on the other hand, it as frequently happens that the same fruit is 

 destroyed by Sparrows in places where there are no other birds. Per- 

 haps this absence of birds, coupled with the fact that many wasps and 

 bees feed on injured or over-ripe fruit, has led some people to attribute 

 all this injury to insects. Thus the Eev. W. M. Beauchamp, of Bald- 

 winsville, Onondaga County, $T. Y., writes : 



It seems altogether a mistake to suppose they [the Sparrows] injure grapes or 

 other fruits. They are scarcely ever seen in my garden, but my grapes and plums 

 suffer fearfully from bees. A year ago I made a special study of the destruction of 

 grapes for several weeks, and demonstrated that the bees alone were the aggressors, 

 neither birds, hornets, nor wasps coming near the fru't all that time. (October A5, 

 1885.) 



8404— Bull. 1 4 



