EVIDENCE. EFFECTS ON NATIVE BIRDS. 275 



New York. Dr. F. Hollick : I have a bird house which has now been occupied for 

 three years in succession by bluebirds, right among a large flock of Sparrows, in my 

 own garden ; a robin also builds every year in a tree close by, under which the Spar- 

 rows congregate every day. I believe that it is the small boy and the shotgun that 

 drive away our native birds from inhabited places, and when they are gone the Spar- 

 rows, who alone can withstand these enemies, are accused of driving them away. 

 (September 2, 1884.) 



Old Westbury. John D. Hicks : There is no conflict between the Sparrow and the 

 birds in our locality, except with the bluebird and wren, which compete for nesting 

 places. The Sparrow by first occupancy gets possession and holds it ; consequently 

 bluebirds are scarce. Wrens only succeed. in building in houses with small entrances. 

 (September 6, 1886. Present about twenty years.) 



Painted Post. A. H. Wood: The common house- wren resists the encroachments of 

 the Sparrow with great success, dumping out the whole business, eggs and all ; the 

 purple grackle also does so to a certain extent. Barn and cliff swallows and bluebirds 

 resist with poor success. I have not observed the Sparrow to drive off any of our na- 

 tive birds. The trouble is that it takes possession of desiiable nesting places, and 

 when other birds arrive the Sparrows are fully established, and the native birds are 

 compelled to go elsewhere. Formerly bluebirds nested very freely in this village, but 

 since the Sparrows have besome numerous they have entirely disappeared from their 

 nesting places. (August 10, 1886. Present about ten years.) 



Plattsburgh. G. H. Hudson : I have seen six or eight Sparrows follow a robin about, 

 and seize upon and appropriate each earth-worm which he dragged from the ground. 

 (1834.) 



Rochester. Henry Harrison : I have never seen any of our native birds attempt to 

 drive away the Sparrow, but it takes possession of any nest it wishes. A robin built 

 a nest for three seasons in a tree opposite my window, and the Sparrow drove it away. 

 It also drives away orioles and woodpeckers. (August 23, 1886. Present about four- 

 teen years. ) 



Schvylers La ke (country). La Grande Southworth : I have seen the downy wood- 

 pecker attempt to drive off the Sparrow, but he was always defeated. The Sparrow 

 also attacks bluebirds and robins, and I have seen it occupying a robin's nest, but 

 never saw the robin attempt to reclaim the nest. (December 2, 1886. Present about 

 six years.) 



Sing Sing. Dr. A. K. Fisher : Before the advent of the House Sparrow, and before 

 he had become fully established, the wood-thrush (Tardus mustelinus), robin (Merula 

 migratoria), Baltimore oriole (Icterus g alb id a), purple martin (Progne subis), house 

 wren (Troglodytes aedon), catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis), and a inmber of other 

 species, were common summer residents in the village, building their nests in the 

 large door yards. For years they have been rarely known to breed except in the out- 

 skirts of the village. The purple martins have disappeared from the locality, with 

 the exception of one colony, which still occupies a large martin box at the State 

 prison. 



Once a pair of kingbirds attempted to build a nest in one of the large sycamores 

 which stood near the old Baptist church in the center of the village. They finally 

 had to abandon this site, for the Sparrows would fly up in the absence of the king- 

 birds and remove the material as fast as it was deposiled. 



The habit of the Sparrow in following the robin and suatching particles of food 

 from its bill was noted by the writer in a letter to Dr. Coues, published in the Ameri- 

 can Naturalist for December, 1882, p. 1009. (1885. Present about nineteen years.) 



Syracuse (city and country). Edwin M. Hasbrouck: One case has come under my 

 notice where a robin had partly finished a nest in a maple tree when the Sparrow 

 took possession and completed it after his own ideas. This was blown or torn down, 

 and two years after was occupied by the robin, but the Sparrow has possession now. 

 It molests and drives off warblers, thrushes, flycatchers, orioles, and the goldfinch, 



