50 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



Careful experiments made by the Entomological Division of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture show conclusively that bees can only injure 

 fruit under very exceptional circumstances. More than twenty varie- 

 ties of grapes were placed within easy reach of hungry bees, which made 

 every effort to eat them but were unable in a single instance to break the 

 skin of sound grapes. (See Annual Eeport of Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture for 1885.) Bees and wasps, especially " yellow jackets," often 

 destroy ripe fruits of various kinds as soon as an opening through the 

 skin has been made, but it remains to be proved that they are ever the 

 first aggressors, and the structure of the mouth parts of honey bees seems 

 to preclude the possibility of their ever breaking the skin of grapes. 



Of course we have received many reports (about 25 in all) to the 

 effect that the Sparrow has not been observed to injure grapes, and per- 

 haps half a, dozen of these observers state positively that in their 

 opinion it never does injure them. 



Dr. J. E. Mathers, of Buckhannon, W. Ya., where the Sparrow has 

 been present for five years or more, writes : 



I raise quantities of grapes and have never known the Sparrow to touch them, nor 

 have I ever heard any complaint from others on this head. (August 24, 1885.) 



Mr. Frank Little, of Kalamazoo, Mich., writes: 



I have an extensive garden of fruit (particularly grapes), vegetables, sweet corn, 

 and flowers. While the Sparrows frequent the street in front of my house, I have 

 never seen them doing any harm in the garden. (September 6, 1886. Present six or 



eight years.) 



There is nothing whatever in these statements which is open to ques- 

 tion. They are statements of fact, and as such should be accepted as 

 evidence, but it should be remembered that this is merely negative evi- 

 dence, and only tends to prove that the Sparrow does not always feed 

 on fruit even when readily accessible. It takes nothing from the force 

 of the positive evidence already given, and the only point of difiiculty 

 which it raises is the question why the bird should eat fruit only at some 

 times instead of at all times ; a question which could be certainly and 

 fully answered if we bad all the data naturally pertaining to the case. 

 Failing this, we can only say that probably food of other kinds was 

 so abundant the Sparrows took but little fruit anywhere, and this 

 little was found more easily elsewhere, or was taken unobserved and 

 was never missed. Or, perhaps the very abundance of fruit and the 

 limited numbers of the birds prevented any noticeable damage. The 

 fact that the Sparrows are not actually seen doing the mischief is never 

 surprising to one who has watched them closely, for they are among 

 the most wary and cunning of birds, especially after they have been 

 detected once in mischief of any kind. There is every reason to believe, 

 however, that the taste for fruit is one which not all English Sparrows 

 acquire, or which at least is not held to the same extent by all. 



It can not be denied that some fruit growers suffer much greater loss 

 from Sparrows than others, when, so far as can be determined, the condi- 



