EVIDENCE. — FROM AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. 327 



By degrees it became painfully patent to the fruit-grower, the gardener, and the 

 florist, as well as the practical ornithologist, that the niuch-cared-for aud overrated 

 Sparrows were affecting seriously their respective interests. 



The pear, plum, and peach trees, and also the grape-vines, were rifled of their buds. 

 The grapes, strawberries, and, I have been told, raspberries and blackberries, were 

 taken. The tender herbs, grasses, aud colenses were plucked and devoured ; and last, 

 but by no means the least, the close-observing lovers ef native birds proper were forced 

 to note a steady diminution, not only yearly but monthly, in the formerly plentiful 

 denizens of our town, such as the wren, blue-bird, vireo, and " chippy " (S. socialis) ; 

 even transitory visitors, as certain of the w T arblers, etc., seemed to avoid West Ches- 

 ter, and now, at the proper seasons, when the migrants as well as residents enter 

 this place, they are pursued and driven out by the hosts of " usurpers." 



Our townsman, John F. Ingram, well and favorably known to all, aud a gentleman 

 who, it is universally admitted, "thinks twice before he speaks," was one of the 

 first to call my attention to the destructive propensities, uncleauly habits, and pug- 

 nacious disposition of the Sparrow. He also had noticed the material lessening in 

 visitations of the insect-eating birds. 



Like observations of other well-known parties, and disparaging newspaper reports, 

 linked with a desire to learn the true state of affairs, led to a series of dissections by 

 the writer. The result of this work, it will be remembered by some, was given in 

 detail by me before this society, hence I deem it not necessary to here dwell upon 

 the minutiae of anatomical labors; but will state that in upwards of a hundred stom- 

 achs lately examined the show of vegetable materials was very greatly in excess of 

 the insect diet. 



It is needless, however, to dwell longer upon the merits or demerits of these birds. 

 Suffice it to say that repeated interviews with many of our leading citizens aud res- 

 idents throughout the country prove conclusively that popular sentiment is against 

 them because of their injurious traits. Now, the one question is, how shall we get 

 rid of them ? 



[From papers read before the Biological Section of the Canadian Institute by W. Brodie.] 

 THE EUROPEAN SPARROW, PASSER DOMESTICUS. 



The food of birds has, of late years, become a very important subject of investiga- 

 tion from an economic as well as a scientific stand-point. Many old and tenaciously 

 held opinions have been quire overthrown. 



It has been shown that birds of prey are nearly all beneficial, many of them emi- 

 nently so. It has also been shown that many birds which were formerly considered 

 entirely beneficial are injurious in some particulars. 



The rapid increase of the recently introduced European Sparrow, its adaptability 

 to climatic conditions in Ontario, its food, its driving away of native species, and the 

 general disturbance of bird life in consequence, are subjects which have attracted 

 the attention of ornithologists and elicited some discussion without a very definite 

 settlement of the most important points. This bird may now be said to extend over 

 the whole of Outario, even over very sparsely settled sections. 



During this last summer it has spread from Nipissiug along the line of the C. P. R. to 

 the north ef Lake Superior, and we need not be surprised to hear that it has survived 

 the forty degrees below zero of Winnipeg. It is generally admitted that it has 

 driven away a few native species from cities, towns, and country villages — species 

 which were takiug perhaps rather sparingly to our bustling centers, such as the chip- 

 ping Sparrow (Sj)izclla socialis), bluebird (Sialia sialis), house wren (Troglodytes aedon), 

 yellow warbler (Dendroica cestiva), cliff swallow (Petrochelidon lunifrons), tree swal- 

 low ( Tachycineta bicolor), aud a few others. The following extracts from memoranda 

 covering a period of six years, are submitted with a view of contributing something 

 to what we know of the food habits of this bird. 



