298 THE ENGLISH SPARROW -IN AMERICA. 



Lancaster. Dr. S. S. Rathvon. Its benefit to the farmer and horticulturist has 

 been merely nominal. Two or three Sparrows have been occasionally observed in 

 conflict about the possession of a cicada, a, locust, or a large larva. Doubtless it feeds 

 its young on soft insects, but I have not noticed a Sparrow destroying an insect in ten 

 years. I once saw two of them contending about the possession of an earthworm. 



Although, living in a crowded city, I may not be able to say much specifically as to 

 what insects the English Sparrow destroys, I can bear unqualified testimony as to 

 what it will not or did not destroy. Three or four years ago all the elm trees in 

 this city were seriously infested by the elm-leaf beetle (G-aleruca xanthomelwna), 

 several large trees being within 100 yards of my business station. There were millions 

 of the insects — larva, pupa, and imago— on the leaves, the branches, the trunks, and 

 on the pavements under the trees, and I visited them often. Midway between my 

 location and these trees was the dead wall of a large three-story house entirely cov- 

 ered by a vigorous " trumpet vine," amid the foliage of which hundreds of Sparrows 

 roosted, nested, and reared their broods, and many of the birds were flying forth and 

 returning, from "early morn to dewy eve," but I never saw one of them visit the in- 

 fested trees or appropriate a single insect in any of its forms. At the same time I 

 saw scores of them in the streets, picking up whatever they could find, and especially 

 disintegrating and exploring the faeces of horses, almost immediately after dropping. 

 Twenty yards from where I am now daily occupied (on another premise) stands a 

 large cherry tree. Early in the season I noticed a small mass of web, about the size 

 of a common tea-cup, upon a single branch, and I admonished the proprietor to re- 

 move it, as it was spun by a species of " web-worm." He paid no attention to it, and 

 now fully one-half the tree is covered and the leaves skeletonized ; and this too, not- 

 withstanding not 20 yards distant is the gable of a three-story building covered with 

 another trumpet vine, harboring a colony of an hundred Sparrows or more. They fly 

 straight to and from their rookery, but seldom alight or continue long on the cherry 

 tree. 



Again, on my premises is growing a wild cucurbitaceous plant, on which I dis- 

 covered a small colony of " lady-birds " (Epilachna borealis), and as the plant is value- 

 less I permitted them to increase merely to ascertain their destructive possibilities. 

 Although the vine (Echinocystes lobatus) is a most vigorous grower, the insects have 

 nearly eaten it up. This vine was also infested by thousands of Lecanium liemisplueri- 

 cum (a species of Coccidai), but the Sparrows did not disturb them. About ten feet 

 from the x>lant is a large Wistaria cliincnsis, harboring from ten to twenty or more 

 English Sparrows, but they never touched one of the insects to my knowledge, al- 

 though there has been no period since the 15th of July last that abundance of 

 the larvas, pupse, and mature insects were not present. Now, all these insects are of 

 such a texture as to be edible to even young birds, but the Sparrows have " severely 

 let them alone." 



Allow me, in conclusion, to say that I have not now, nor have I ever had, any faith 

 in the English Sparrow as essentially a destroyer of insects, simply because it is a 

 finch. At the same time I would not wantonly traduce the character of the bird. 

 (October 8, 1886.. Present sixteen years or more.) 



Mansfield Valley (suburb of Pittsburgh). Dr. R. L. Walker: I notice the Spar, 

 rows every morning picking up the moths and other insects which get their wings 

 singed by the natural-gas torch in my garden. This is the only insect-eating I have 

 ever known them to do. When the currant-worm became such a pest I put up a num- 

 ber of boxes for the Sparrows, thinking they would clean out the worms ; but the 

 experiment was a failure, for although the boxes were occupied, I never saw a Sparrow 

 touch even a single worm. I tore down the boxes and dug up the currant bushes, 

 and by that means got rid of the worms. I wish I could get rid of the Sparrows as 

 easily. (July, 1887. Present about five years.) 



New Lexington. Dr. H. D. Moore: I have examined a great many stomachs, and 

 in only a very few have I found any worms or insects. They eat such of the larvae of 



