332 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



look after nests is that they seldom lay before about the 23d or 25th of April. They 

 breed all through July and August, but you do not fiud many then ; as they get out 

 onto the wheat fields they seem to leave off the idea of breeding ; there are not many 

 nests in August ; that is the only chance the martins have, which saves them from 

 utter extermination. Occasionally they raise a late brood in September, when the 

 Sparrows are gone to ravage the wheat fields. The poor birds are reduced to great 

 straits, and they have to wait until the latter part of October, when they are pinched 

 up with the cold, and they go down the chimneys at night for warmth ; but when 

 they are protected they get their latest broods clear off before the end of September 

 generally. To the best of myrecollection only two nests were reared (on my place) in 

 1869, one close to a door, and one close to a window, where the Sparrows dared not 

 come; all the rest were taken by the Sparrows. As, to my indignation, they had 

 been diminishing in numbers for niauy years, I thought to do something to protect 

 the martins. I had been away from home for a month in the year 1870, and I came 

 home towards the end of May. Several martins' nests were built around the pigeon- 

 house, which is a favorite place of theirs ; I found that every nest had been taken by the 

 Sparrows. I set to work with a young friend, one or other of us watching the martins 

 nearly all day for a fortnight; we killed about a hundred and fifty Sparrows in the 

 fortnight around the martins' nests, and in spite of a great deal of difficulty, we got 

 seven nests to fly that year. The next year I had twenty nests ; last year I had forty- 

 five, and this year I have more than fifty, I should think; I can not tell exactly how 

 many there will be, but I expect there will be sixty, for I believe there are fifty-one 

 now, and they have not all built yet. * * * No bird, in my opinion, does as much 

 mischief as the Sparrow, or requires so much to be kept down, partly from the nature 

 of his food and from the manner of getting it. The Sparrow is not only the greatest 

 corn-eater, on the whole, of any of the small birds, at all events, but he is not kept 

 down by a cold winter so much ; he can find his food somehow all the year round. No 

 small bird approaches the Sparrow in destructiveness ; I will not be so dogmatic as 

 to say that the Sparrows are of no good at all, but the balance is against them, even 

 taking a comparative estimate of what they eat ; and when you are certain that they 

 are destroying one of our most beautiful, useful, and interesting birds, the martin, 

 that condemns them. I like the martin, and his enemies are my enemies. (June 12, 

 1873.) 



| Mr. Champion Russell, in paper Landed to the committee.] 



[Page 172.] Mr. Hurrell, farmer, Boreham, near Chelmsford, being questioned 

 (July 14, 1873) about birds, says that he once measured an acre of early wheat where 

 Sparrows had eaten it, and another adjoining acre, otherwise of same quality. The 

 wheat was thrashed out separately, and the loss from Sparrows found to be two 

 quarters [16 bushels] ; value at the time, £6. Does not find the land less valuable 

 for any crop where Sparrows do not frequent. Says that Sparrows take a few 

 aphides from the peas, as well as the green peas themselves, but not enough to do 

 perceptible good where they frequent. 



(I find that they sometimes give a few aphides to their young ones. — C. R.) 



Martins* and Sparrows. 



The decrease in the number of straw-thatched buildings, most likely, has some 

 effect in making Sparrows more hard on the martins ; but many of the former take 

 the nests of the latter in preference to any other accommodation. I have found, 

 for instance, that they will not use the " Sparrow pots" if they can get at martins' 

 nests. 



* [The European martin, Hirundo urbica, must not be confounded with the Ameri- 

 can martin, Progne subis. The former is much smaller, in size and nesting habits 

 more nearly resembling the American cliff swallow, Petrochelidon lunifrons. — W- B.B.] 



