276 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



wren, bluebird, and purple grackle. (August 20, 1S86. Present twenty-two or twenty- 

 three years.) 



Tully (country). J. A. Dakin : I have seen the butcher-bird and kingbird drive it 

 away without beiug first attacked. The purple martin is the only bird I have noticed 

 attempting to reclaim former nesting sites. I saw several of these last May fighting 

 for the possession of a former nesting house which the Sparrow was then occupying. 

 The robin and eave swallow (lunifrons) have been expelled to a considerable extent. 

 (September 10, 1886. Present about eight years.) 



Watkins. H. C. Griswold : Last spring, when the straw stacks were torn down, 

 about sixty Sparrows, which were thus deprived of a place to roost, came to the ever- 

 greens in the front yard and pitched battle with four or five pairs of purple finches. 

 They drove the finches from the place they had frequented for years, and even whipped 

 or discouraged a hen so as to make her look elsewhere for shelter. At a neighbor's, 

 where seventy or eighty martins build their nests under the eaves, they drove them 

 away after a few days' fight, so that now the Sparrows have sole possession. (Sep- 

 tember 30, 1885.) 



West Farms, New York City. Jas. Angus : There is but one serious objection to the 

 Sparrow, and that is that it annoys and keeps away the wrens and bluebirds ; but I 

 protect the wrens by contracting the opening to their house ; if it is made just large 

 enough for the wren it is too small for the Sparrow, and there will be no trouble. 

 (February 11, 1884. Present fifteen or twenty years.) 



North Carolina. — Graham. Robert J. Thompson : A resident of the town of Gra- 

 ham told me that he had seen the Sparrow attack and kill all kinds of other birds 

 and their young ; that he had seen as many as a dozen Sparrows attack one bird. The 

 summer sparrow and wren seem to be the birds which suffer most, but robins and 

 bluebirds are also attacked. (Rock Creek, N. C, March 7, 1888.) 



Raleigh. T. C. Williams: It is driving out our native sparrows, mockingbirds, and 

 other small birds that formerly abounded in and around country villages and towns. 

 (September 2, 1886. Present about five years.) 



Ohio. — Aberdeen. George Sibbald: In 1884, when the oats were ripe, I saw a flock 

 of Sparrows sitting on the fence that inclosed the field — the first I had seen outside 

 the city or village. In 1885 a few built their nests and hatched their young in and 

 about my dwelling-house. In the year 1886 they came in large numbers and drove 

 all the native birds from the trees in the front yard, and built their nests in and about 

 the house as before. In the spring of 1887 I had all the old nests thrown out and 

 every hole and crevice stopped up. They came in great numbers, but only one pair 

 found a place to hatch — the others all left. The native birds returned to the trees 

 and bushes in my yard and reared their young. A visitor at my house, who had been 

 traveling much this season, said I had more birds than any place he had seen, and 

 named four or five different kinds which had nests on the trees. (June 10, 1887.) 



Burton (country). P. W. Parmelee : The martin and bluebird have held their own 

 with the Sparrow, but the robin, swallow, yeliowbird, catbird, and phcebe have no 

 show with it, and have almost entirely left this part of the country. All the above- 

 named birds and the wren have nested on my place, mostly in nests occupied the 

 previous year, until within a year or two. (September 1, 1886. Present about five 

 years.) 



Cincinnati. William Hubbell Fisher : The only birds to be found in the city now 

 are the Sparrow and the domestic pigeon. (September 9 1884). 



Cincinnati. Dr. F. W. Langdon : It has replaced to a very large extent the blue- 

 bird, martin, and in some neighborhoods the house and Carolina wrens, that for- 

 merly bred in boxes put up for them. A bridge within the city limits, formerly oc- 

 cupied by hundreds of cliff swallows, has for several years past been tenanted almost 

 exclusively by the Sparrows. (November, 1885.) 



Circleville. Dr. Howard Jones : The wrens are not equal to Sparrows in fighting 

 qualities, so far as I have observed, and the house wren, Bewick's wren, and the 



