70 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



From Dr. Daniel Berry, of Carini, White County, 111.: 



In the town they organize foraging parties for excursions into the country. I have 

 seen hundreds of them busy among the wheat shocks. (October 6, 1830. Present 

 about ten years.) 



From Dr. Grmsby Gray, of Shelby ville, Ky. : 



As soon as the head matures it begins to visit wheat fields in large flocks and eat 

 the grain ; iu fact it almost disappears from the town for two or three days at a time 

 while foraging. (October 12, 1886. Present about eight years.) 



Fiom Kobert D. Gamp, of New Haven, Conn.: 



I have noticed for a number of years the diminished number of Sparrows in the 

 city during the harvesting, and upon inquiry among the neighboring farmers I find 

 that they make their way to the country during that season. (April, 1887. Present 

 fifteen years or more.) 



From J. L. Davison, of Loekport, Niagara County, N. Y. : 



I have known it to leave the city by hundreds aud feed upon a wheat field adjoin- 

 ing Glen wood Cemetery. The estimated damage was one-fourth of the crop. (Octo- 

 ber 10, 1885.) 



From Joseph C. Bailiff, of Richmond, Inch: 



It is very destructive to wheat before and after it is cut. I saw its depredations 

 in wheat fields last summer, four or five miles out of the city. (November 5> 1886. 

 Present about seventeen years.) 



From H. F. Work, New Washington, Clark County, Ind.: 



It injures grain crops, especially wheat; almost wholly destroying standing crops in 

 the vicinity of large towns, and preying on the same in shock and stack. (April 21, 



1887.) 



From Dr. George L. Andrew, of La Porte, Ind.: 



It has already become a pest to the grain fields in the immediate vicinity of towns. 

 During the last wheat harvest I rode over the country around Hamilton, Ohio, and 

 by carriage to Cincinnati, and all the fields observed had suffered for a rod or two 

 around the edges, in many cases the grain having been "cleaned out" entirely. 

 (September 9, 1886. Present about six years.) 



William N. Ponton, of Belleville, Ont., Canada, writes: 



rVhen it can get grain it will not touch anything else. Wheat especially is its prey, 

 and on my own farm here on the shores of the Bay of Quinte, three acres of fall wheat 

 were absolutely eaten up by Sparrows, and by Sparrows alone. (September 27, 1884.) 



The habit of working around the edges of a field seems to be char- 

 acteristic of the Sparrow, and is mentioned in scores of reports. Black- 

 birds, rice-birds, and others which damage grain are more apt to avoid 

 the edges of the fields and settle in the midst of the grain, where they 

 are less likely to be disturbed, but the Sparrow scorns to seek safety in 

 the same way, but feeds unmolested wherever he chooses. 



William McBrown, of Fall IJiver, Greenwood County, Kans., writes: 



It will eat every grain of wheat or other small grain that time will permit. Along 

 hedges I have seen wheat stripped of every grain for many feet into the field. 

 (October 8, 1886. Present about two years.) 



Jabez Webster, of Centralia, Marion County, 111., writes : 

 When cloyed with raspberries they would go in flocks to a wheat field close by, 

 and for hours fly backwards and forwards from the hedge to the field until a strip of 

 wheat a rod wide was cleaned out. (December 21, 1886. Present about seven years.) 



