MISCELLANEOUS INJURIES. 149 



cleaning the grain from the outside of stacks, to dig or burrow into the 

 stacks in search of more, and a thatched roof bears no distant resem- 

 blance to such a stack stripped of the outside grain. 



Among the complaints of miscellaneous injuries from the Sparrow, 

 one of the most frequent relates to its habit of robbing poultry of their 

 food. At first sight the loss thus occasioned would seem to be trifling, 

 but the complaints received show that this is far from being the case. 

 The Sparrows do not eat what the poultry leave; they eat with the fowls, 

 ant* soon become so bold that they not only resist the attempts which 

 the fowls make to drive them off, but even make unprovoked attacks 

 on them, sometimes driving them away from the food. As a Sparrow 

 eats more, in proportion to its size, than a hen, and as the Sparrows 

 about a farm-yard frequently outnumber the fowls ten to one, the grain 

 which they thus steal day after day is an item of considerable impor- 

 tance. 



Under date of February 27, 1884, Mr. D. 0. Beard, of Flushing, N. 

 Y., wrote: 



I know to my sorrow that it lives all winter entirely on grain, for in buying chicken 

 feed I allow two parts for the Sparrows and one for the chickens. 



Another observer says that they are so abundant about his place 

 that they "rise in clouds" from his hen-yard; while more than one wit- 

 ness states that when chickens are fed out of doo.s the Sparrows get 

 more than the fowls. Dr. A. P. Sharp, of Baltimore, states that on his 

 place in Kent County, McL, the Sparrows have learned by experience 

 that it is dangerous to eat grain except with the chickens. He says: 



Formerly I killed a good many of them, but now have tried every means to feed 

 them. They will eat with the chickens, seeming to know that I will uot shoot 

 them. 



This list of miscellaneous injuries would not be complete without a 

 reference to the voice of the Sparrow. Some notes of the Sparrow are 

 not in themselves unmusical, especially if uttered by single birds and 

 in a low key, but even the most enthusiastic of Sparrow admirers will 

 readily admit that the bird is no singer, and the ceaseless, discordant 

 chatter of a flock of Sparrows about their nesting or roosting places can 

 be characterized only as a nuisance. Those who have been compelled 

 to listen to this noise continually will appreciate the remarks of one of 

 our correspondents who wrote in 1834 : 



To many our singiug birds form the very poetry of the year; and when they are 

 replaced, or their music is drowned by these noisy and dirty Sparrows, so that half 

 the charm of spring is gone, no little suffering results. The effect upon sick or nerv- 

 ous people of their monotonous and peculiarly uutuneful cry is very great. I have 

 ofteu counted a hundred and more successive chirps by one Sparrow, in exactly the 

 same key, a real torture to the ear ; and I have known more than one invalid whose 

 morning sleep and needful out-door walk have been quite spoiled by the presence of 

 these birds. 



