EVIDENCE. FKOM AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. 307 



[Forest and Stream, Vol. XXVIII, p. 513, July 7, 1887.] 



Two instances have lately come to my notice illustrating the vicious character of 

 the imported Sparrow, and, as I think reports of such cases tend to harden the hearts 

 of the people against the hird, I consider it desirable that they should go on the 

 record. 



My attention was called one morning to the excited actions and notes of a pair of 

 white-breasted swallows, which were rearing a brood in a box near my door. Look- 

 ing at the box I saw a male English Sparrow at the entrance alternately thrusting his 

 head inside and facing around to ward off the assaults of the swallows. Suspecting 

 mischief, I shot the Sparrow, and my suspicions were confirmed. His bill, covered 

 with blood and down, proved that he was deliberately murdering the young swallows. 



The other case is similar. Dr. Adams, of this place, reports as follows: One 

 morning he observed English Sparrows apparently occupying a box in which he 

 knew swallows were nesting. Investigating, he found in the nest the body of the 

 mother swallow, with the fresh wounds on the head from the Sparrow's bill. 



Now, this is simply atrocious. I would like to have some friend of this bird — and 

 I understand there are yet a very few such — set forth a single item in his favor to off- 

 set the huge pile of indictments against this filthy, noisy, quarrelsome, and blood- 

 thirsty foreigner. Something must be done. How long are we to stand with our 

 hands behind us, saying, "Too bad! too bad!" Probably until it is too late, if, indeed, 

 it is not so already. It should be "war to the knife!" (P. C. Browne. Framing- 

 ham, Mass., June 25.) 



[Forest and Stream, Vol. XXIX, p. 86.] 



In a paper read before the California Academy of Sciences August 1, 1387, Mr. Wal- 

 ter E. Bryant says of the Sparrow : 



" Since the introduction of this pest into our cities, many birds, hitherto common, 

 have left for the suburbs, notably the cliff swallows, whose nests were appropriated 

 by the Sparrows. In these cases the limited space compelled the latter to dispense 

 with the usual amount of rubbish and carry in only a lining of feathers.'"' 



[Forest and Stream, Vol. XXIX, p. 105.1 



Ned W« Goodwin, of Sharpsville, Pa., says: 



"I have this season seen, in a fir tree near a residence about two miles out of town, 

 six nests of the English Sparrow. The branches of the tree, radiating from the 

 trunk in series quite closely disposed one above another, droop downward, and, thickly 

 fringed with long sprays of foliage as they are, afford the nests ample shelter from 

 the weather. Each of the nests in question was situated upon the drooping portion 

 of a branch and upon the convex upper surface of the leafage of the branch. The 

 bird had made first a foundation mat of straw, on which it built up a structure nearly 

 spherical in form and about one foot in its greatest diameter, of straws quite neatly 

 woven together. Inside this ball is the nest proper, which is thickly lined with the 

 downy feathers of barn-yard fowls. The entrance to the nest is an ascending cylin- 

 drical tunnel, lying along and directly above the supporting branch. One of the nests 

 is on a branch the extremity of which is not more than seven feet above the ground. 

 Drawing this branch downward I closely examined the nest. It contained six eggs. 

 One nest was situated about 25 feet above the ground, the others lower down. The 

 tree affords good shelter at a height considerably greater than 25 feet." 



[Forest and Stream, Vol. XXIX, p. 164, September 22. 1837.] 

 SPARROWS DRIVEN OUT BY WORMS. 



Until two or three days since a brood of English Sparrows have had their roosting 

 place in a Virginia creeper just outside the window of a room where I am. writing. 



