320 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



My sorrow was soon turned to joy to behold a pair of bluebirds come down, as it 

 were out of heaven, and alight on the nearest bird-house, doubtless occupied by them 

 last season, but which had been appropriated by the Sparrows this winter. No 

 sooner had they alighted than their bright eyes discovered the cocoons on the boards 

 and they darted down to secure the prize. 



Disgusted with the Sparrows I took a step-ladder and commenced to clean out the 

 Sparrow's nest in the bluebirds' house. I fouud in the strings that composed their 

 nest two curculios, three suapping-bugs, one bee-miller, one old female codling moth, 

 and two recently hatched moths. Examining the strings, I found webbings of worms 

 and burnt edges of cloth, and ascertained that they had pulled the strings out of an 

 old smudge left near a bee-hive under an apple tree. This led me to examine the 

 boards placed for the bee-stands (the bee-hives had been carried to the cellar in 

 the fall). On the boards exposed to the Sparrows all winter were numerous cocoons. 



[Cultivator and Country Gentleman (Albany, N. T.), July 29, 1886.] 



* * * The universal testimony of scientists aud others, as against these birds, 

 ought to satisfy the skeptics that this is a bird detrimental to the farmers' interest. 

 For three seasons they have assaulted our experimental plats to their material dam- 

 age. This year we found it necessary to employ a boy to work from 4 a. in. till nearly 

 dark, keeping the Sparrows at a distance. I have found them to be destroyers of 

 grain, injurious to fruit, and early in spring very damaging to fruit buds. Outside 

 near the window by which I write is a plum tree, where often in the spring, as buds 

 were starting, I saw the Sparrows pick out the entire bud center. But, in addition 

 to my own testimony, comes much damaging evidence from farmers in the vicinity, 

 whoso wheat-fields are suffering. Something must be done. Every year the evil be- 

 comes worse and worse, and even to-day great damage is done by the English Spar- 

 rows. (C. S. Plumb, Geneva, N. Y.) 



[Rural World (St.. Louis, Mo.), 188G.] 



The introduction of the Sparrow into America, says the well-known English natu- 

 ralist, Rev. J. G. Wood, "has been distinctly disastrous, as I have x>ersonally seen, 

 aud if the bird were exterminated it would be better for the country. Still more dis- 

 astrous has been its introduction into Australia and New Zealand, especially iu the 

 latter country, where it has abandoned insect-eating altogether, and become a de- 

 vourer of fruits and grain, eating grapes and figs by the ton." And we are quite sat- 

 isfied that the sooner a policy of destruction is inaugurated the better for all con- 

 cerned on this side of the Atlantic. 



[Prairie Farmer (Chicago, 111.), December 25, 1886.] 



At the recent annual meeting of the Indiana State Horticultural Society, some 

 one mentioned the English Sparrow, and a discussion was precipitated. Mr. Warder, 

 of North Bend, Ohio, had found them both fruit and grain eaters. They had been 

 very destructive to his grapes. They seldom eat insects, but will feed them to the 

 young birds in the nest. Professor Troop, of Purdue University, said that a member 

 of the senior class of that institution had killed one or more Sparrows daily during a 

 considerable portion of the past summer, and examined the contents of their stom- 

 achs. In only one bird had he found the remains of an insect. J. C. Ratliff, of 

 Wayne County, had seen flocks of several hundred alight on his wheat-field, five 

 miles from any town or city, and eat and waste the grain from large areas. They 

 beat the ripened grain from the stalk with their wings. They were still more de- 

 structive to grain in shock. Mr. Folger said that they had entirely driven away 200 

 martins that formerly sheltered in his barn. Mr. Ohmer formerly had plenty of song- 

 birds on his place. Nosv there was only the Sparrow aixl robin. The time had come 

 when something must be done. Mr. Webster had recently made an extended visit 



