EVIDENCE.— FROM EUROPEAN PUBLICATIONS. 333 



The time that Sparrows prefer to take martins' nests is when the shell is not quite 

 finished, as they like a rather large hole to carry in their grass and feathers, of which 

 they use much more than the martins. If not molested, martins use the same nest 

 if they have two or more hroods. If the Sparrows do not take a martin's nest before 

 the young ones are large, they do not meddle with it until the first brood has flown. 

 This, then, is another favorite time for taking the nest. The old martins are away 

 attendiug to their fresh flown young for a few days, and there is no attempt at op- 

 position. I think I could find within a short distance one hundred houses where 

 martins built in numbers forty years ago, but where, owing to the depredations of 

 Sparrows and stupid people, there are none now. 



White, of Selbourne, wrote that " there are few towns or large villages but what 

 abound with house martins." This was the case up to some forty years ago. Now, 

 in most towns and villages, where there were hundreds of these birds, there are now 

 none, or only a few pairs. The principal exceptions, in my knowledge, are in moor 

 or down country, where there is little corn, aud consequently but few Sparrows. 

 Sometimes, but not often, the martins find a place to build, which, for some reason, 

 the Sparrows do not like. 



If people will neither protect the martins from the Sparrows, nor let them build 

 uear their doors and windows for protection, we shall lose these beautiful and most 

 useful birds; indeed, we are losing them fast. Unlike most other birds, they will 

 not make their nests far from our dwellings; if not allowed to build there, they dis- 

 appear. 



Any law to protect Sparrows, if at all observed, would have precisely the same 

 effect as offering a reward for the destruction of martins. 



As a single instance among many of the bauishment of martins by Sparrows, at the 

 place where I was born and brought up, three miles off, there were a great many mar- 

 tins nests when I was a boy. The Sparrows persecuted them badly then, and gradually 

 displaced them, until, for some years past, I do not think that a brood has been raised 

 there. It is a favorite place for martins; some always resort and feed there, though 

 none breed within three-quarters of a mile. They constantly try to re-establish 

 ihemselves there. This year two nests were begun. Both were taken by Sparrows 

 before they were finished. A starling afterwards turned the Sparrow out of one, and 

 eventually broke the nest down by its weight. A starling's egg was found in the 

 nest after it fell. 



To recover from the martins the other nest, which was under the eaves of the house, 

 near a window, I offered a servant half a crown to shoot the Sparrows and pull their 

 nest out. This was done. The martins came back, finished their nest, and kept posses- 

 sion for some time. When the young ones were callow, half of the nest, with its con. 

 tents, was found one day on the ground. The Sparrows no doubt caused this mischief 

 by trying to force themselves into the very small hole left by the martins as is their 

 custom where liable to the attacks of Sparrows. The nest rested on a bar of iron, and 

 was broken across the middle ; a thing I never knew to be done by the martins them- 

 selves ; no wet could get at the nest. I have before known a nest to be broken by 

 Sparrows squeezing themselves in ; in this way they often break down a nest entirely 

 and then go and take another. 



Three years ago a blacksmith near here saw two Sparrows pull young martins out 

 of a nest and drop them alive on the ground. He got a ladder aud put the birdsback 

 in their nest ; in ten minutes ho found that the Sparrows had como back and thrown 

 down the young martins again. 



[Page 174 ] I have destroyed Sparrows as closely as possible for the last four years, 

 and can not find the slightest disadvantage from their absence. It may be said that 

 my neighbors supply me with enough for useful purposes. If so, this shows that 99 

 per cent, of their usual numbers might be destroyed without perceptibly bad effect, 

 so rarely is one to be seen at my place, 



