180 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



Sparrows to the field at the time the grain began to ripen, and told him 

 that, by keeping vigilance for a few mornings, with the aid of a shotgun 

 they could be caused to turn their attention elsewhere. This was done, 

 and the consequence was that he suffered no perceptible loss, nor did they 

 harbor there insufficient numbers this season to justify me in trying to 

 catch them. This may have been partly due, however, to the fact that 

 the grain ripened very rapidly, and there were several other wheat-fields 

 within a mile of this one which ripened earlier; yet this particular field 

 was the nearest to the city, and therefore the first for the birds to reach. 

 Yet about the same conditions existed the previous year, and it is my 

 firm opinion that the birds were driven away by this timely interrup- 

 tion. 



The buildings of the stock-yards here cover several acres. Above 

 the alleys running in the center of each shed, the roof, in the form of 

 a ventilator, is several feet higher than the sheds proper, and at the 

 point where the rafters end on each side is a casing, which forms a cav- 

 ity between the rafters about nine inches high, eighteen inches long, 

 and one foot deep, with the front (facing the pens) open. As all the 

 sheds are built alike, there are necessarily thousands of these cavities, 

 which seem to precisely suit the Sparrow to build its nest in. A few 

 years ago they were so numerous there as to be considered a nuisance, 

 both dangerous and dirty, and the employes were often detailed to tear 

 out their nests and destroy all the eggs and young birds possible. But 

 this afforded little relief, as the birds seemed capable of building them 

 up again about as fast as they could be torn out. During last winter 

 I made a net suitable to catch them out of the buildings at night ; con- 

 sequently at the beginning of the breeding season (the first of April) I 

 commenced operations, and continued until the beginning of June. I 

 went, iu all, sixteen evenings, and succeeded in taking one thousand 

 three hundred and sixty-four breeding birds (often finding eggs on the 

 floor or shelves of the bird-house after they were put iu). These were 

 not all the birds there, and some few may have gone there after I stopped 

 netting, but with w T hat I caught and frightened away the number there 

 this summer has been so strikingly less as to cause no trouble or alarm. 



There is an old grave-yard within the city limits which the young 

 birds heretofore have made their x^incipal' sleeping place, and for an 

 hour or two in the evening they would form one dense, continuous line 

 approaching it. I obtained permission from the sexton to catch them 

 there at night, but I commenced too soon, for after going there three 

 times they left, and have not as yet returned. It was so well suited to 

 their requirements that I scarcely expected their desertion of the place, 

 for they have frequented it for years, and I have noticed their droppings 

 under many of the trees so thick as to completely cover the ground. 



I have mentioned these few things to show in part a peculiar charac- 

 teristic of the bird which comes directly under my notice in my efforts 

 to catch it; and if possible to show how the same characteristic may 



