EVIDENCE. EFFECTS ON NATIVE BIRDS. 279 



indeed, on one occasion I counted fifteen on a single Clinton grape-vine ; but for ten 

 years I have not seen one on the premises. * * * Bat all this is claimed by 

 the friends of the Sparrow to be the result of the building improvements iu the suburbs 

 of the city. Of course this is worthy of consideration, bnt in the few walks I have 

 taken in the country in the past season I never failed to find. Sparrows in liocks often, 

 twenty, or fifty, in the fields and among the trees and shrubbery, but not a native 

 bird of any species. (October 8, 1886. Present sixteen years or more.) 



Mansfield (suburbs of Pittsburgh, two and a half miles from city line). Dr. E. L. 

 Walker: I do not know of a single instance of birds nesting in this place that the 

 Sparrow has not tried to drive away. Alongside ray garden a pair of robins built 

 their nest, and only preserved it by dint of hard and constant fighting ; and then 

 only succeeded, as far as I can see, in rearing one bird. (July, 1887. Present about 

 five years.) 



New Lexington. Dr. H. D. Moore : While I have observed no fighting, yet while 

 the song sparrow, chipping sparrow, summer yellowbird (Dendroica cestiva), swallows, 

 and other birds formerly nested near buildings, they do not return. (September 13, 

 1886. Present about eleven years.) 



North East. Harry E. McNichol : I have observed it engaged in driving off or 

 chasing robins, orioles, wrens, bluebirds, and downy woodpeckers, although usually 

 it seems to be afraid of the wren. (1885. Present six or seven years.) 



Philadelphia. J. Percy Moore: I can not say from my own experience that this 

 species has actually driven away other species of birds from this neighborhood, but I 

 have often seen it engaged in fights with oar native birds, in which it generally 

 had the advantage. On one occasion (May 10, 1885) I observed a pair of Spar- 

 rows drive a pair of bluebirds from- their nearly finished nest in a deserted flicker's 

 (CoTaptes auratus) hole. The Sparrow took possession, remodeled the nest, and laid 

 one egg. The nest was robbed, however, and when the Sparrows deserted it the blue- 

 birds returned, built a new nest, and laid five eggs. On April 22, 1885, when the 

 purple martins first arrived in numbers, I witnessed a battle between about twenty 

 of them and a larger number of Sparrows. The latter had built their nests in several 

 large bird-houses, in which the martins had been accustomed to breed year after year. 

 When the martins arrived the Sparrows tried to prevent them from entering the 

 houses, but after a long battle the martins were victorious, and the two species lived 

 together during the whole summer, each raising its young. (September 7, 1886. 

 Present twenty years or more.) 



Philadelphia (suburb). F. E. Welsh: Wherever the Sparrow has become very 

 numerous, other small birds of all kinds have diminished in numbers or disappeared, 

 often without any apparent cause. On three occasions I have seen from two to four 

 Sparrows defeated by a pair of wrens, and on one occasion a pair was beaten by a 

 pair of bluebirds. The contest on each occasion was concerning a nesting place. I 

 know of no other cases of actual hostilities, but have several times seen a robin fly 

 when a flock of English Sparrows settled near it, though it would not have noticed 

 a flock of crow blackbirds. (October 6, 1885. ) 



Eobins are often molested. I have seen a Sparrow — always the male — hop around 

 after a robin without any apparent reason except to make himself disagreeable. Oc- 

 casionally the robin would vacate, but more often he would charge the Sparrow, 

 which would fly away, sometimes returning, to be driven off again. (August 24, 

 1886.) 



Ehode Island. — Newport. John M. Swan, jr. : It drives away the robin and yellow 

 warbler (Dendroica cestiva) frequently. In some instances these have been disturbed 

 for the purpose of nesting places for the Sparrow; in others merely for the food in 

 the shape of eggs and young. The blackbird and grackle in every instance success- 

 fully resist the advances of the sparrow. (September, 1886. Present five years.) 



South Carolina. — Abbeville C. H. J. F. C. Du Pre: Iu this section the Sparrow is 

 au unmitigated nuisance. Heretofore the old-field sparrow, bluebird, nuthatch, cat- 



