TRAPPING SPARROWS. 179 



In 1874-75 I caught a few (all together perhaps three hundred and 

 fifty) for propagation elsewhere. Of these I have uo data, for they were 

 either disposed of through the medium of the bird-store, or those getting 

 thein of me either took them or sent them away themselves. 



Apart from this I do not think I am in anyway responsible for the 

 distribution of the Sparrow, and from the scores sent me by those who 

 have used them for trap shooting I find about seventy per cent, are 

 killed; therefore the escaping birds have added, as it were, but a u drop 

 in the bucket" to the number already there. 



From observations made in catching them I believe that at the time 

 when the propagation of the Sparrow was so strongly advocated, they 

 were taken by enthusiasts in small numbers to this and that place, and 

 by being unmolested, through the protection of stringent laws, they 

 increased in numbers rapidly; their range, in consequence of their 

 nomadic, gregarious habits, becoming wider each successive year, until 

 in many instances the birds from different points have met. 



This feature of their "spreading" I find to be especially true of the 

 young birds in the summer and fall, and it also applies to the mature 

 birds in early spring at the approach of the season of nidification. After 

 every available place is monopolized in cities and towns many retire to 

 the remote suburbs, or even to the country, following the habitations 

 of man and the works of civilization. 



It is at this season of the year, perhaps, when those who object to the 

 Sparrow can the most effectively keep them away, precisely as the Spar- 

 row keeps the native birds away by monopolizing, prior to their arrival, 

 such places as would be suitable to them in the work of nidification. 

 The Sparrow, with its established maternal cares, protects these nesting 

 places, and the native bird, having less at stake when it first appears, 

 is uaturally enough caused to go further on. 



My father-in-law, living about eight miles from the city, upon the first 

 appearance of the Sparrow in the spring, at once gets his rifle, and keeps 

 it handy for about a month or more; also in the fall, with the young 

 birds he uses his shot-gun, and by "nipping them in the bud" in this 

 way he suffers no inconvenience or material loss. 



The Sparrow, while it appears brave, is nevertheless extremely cau- 

 tious and mistrustful, and'whenever it displays any apparent assurance 

 it has first learned by cautious approaches (hat there is no danger. I 

 live in the suburbs of the city, and close by is a wheat field of some 50 

 acres, of which the Sparrows " took possession" last year, and for about 

 two rounds of the machine next the fence it was scarcely worth the cut- 

 ting. After it was cut the top-sheafs of some of the shocks were in some 

 cases completely ransacked. The renter of the field kindly left me an 

 open cleared place on a knoll in one corner, and in six consecutive days 

 I caught 1,240 Sparrows, and they were still sufficiently plentiful to 

 make it an object for me to catch them there. I advised this renter, if 

 he sowed wheat the following year, to watch the first approach of the 



