NATURAL HISTORY. 



137 



PTARMIGAN AND SPARROWS. 



RICHARD C. M'GREGOR. 



In the November number of your excel- 

 lent magazine Mr. Bales describes the 

 eggs of Alaska ptarmigan as being pure 

 white. Now, so far as known to scientists, 

 the ptarmigan lays one of the most richly 

 colored eggs of any of our gallinaceous 

 birds. The eggs of the rock and willow 

 ptarmigan are highly colored, the ground 

 color being reddish buff, over which are 

 scattered more or less confluent spots and 

 blotches of black and dark brown. All the 

 authorities I have been able to consult 

 agree on this point, and so I am inclined 

 to think Mr. Bales has mistaken the eggs. 



Several of your correspondents seem to 

 be interested in the English sparrow. So 

 are all of us. We have to be, for he is 

 here to stay. Mr. Miner has given us a 

 bitter pill, but not in just the way he meant 

 when he says man should not interfere 

 with the natural order of things. We are 

 all sorry we did it, but it can't be helped 

 now, for the sparrow has it his own way 

 here, as he does in the old country. 



The European house sparrow was given 

 a fair trial in 1889 by Walter B. Barrows, 

 and evidence from 3,000 witnesses is re- 

 ported on in Bulletin No. 1 of the Bio- 

 logical Survey of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. For the benefit of those who have 

 not examined this volume I have reduced 

 to as small compass as possible the objec- 

 tions to the pest. 



Wherever the bird is at all abundant it 

 roosts, by hundreds, in trees and vines, 

 which are soon disfigured and eventually 

 destroyed by its excrements. Quantities 

 of buds and blossoms are destroyed both 

 on fruit and ornamental trees. Among 

 these are peach, pear, grape, plum, cherry, 

 apple, currant, maple, elm and evergreens. 

 Not only this, but they do serious dam- 

 age to the fruit itself. Grapes, apples, 

 pears, figs and other fruits are reported as 

 suffering. Vegetables, especially peas, let- 

 tuce, cabbage, beets and turnips, are seri- 

 ously injured when young. Of wheat, oats, 

 corn, rice and buckwheat, both seed and 

 ripe crop are eaten. 



Beside being directly injurious to vege- 

 tation, the sparrows drive away insect- 

 eating birds. They are so quarrelsome 

 that no self-respecting native bird can or 

 will live near them. At least 70 kinds of 

 native birds are reported as being molested 

 by sparrows, and those, with the exception 

 of not over 10, are species decidedly bene- 

 ficial to the farmer and gardener. More 

 than one-half the complaints relate to mar- 

 tens, swallows, wrens and bluebirds, all of 

 which, when undisturbed, nest about 

 houses. 



The sparrow was imported under the 

 impression that it would destroy worms, 



but it not only dislikes worms, but it drives 

 off the few native species of birds which 

 would eat them. Professor J. A. Lintern 

 says: "The extraordinary increase of the 

 tussock moth or tent caterpillar, Orgyia 

 laicostigma, is owing to the introduction 

 and multiplication of the English sparrow. 

 That the sparrows decline to eat the 

 Orgyia caterpillar is not a charge against 

 them. They could not eat them with im- 

 punity. The diet would doubtless prove 

 fatal to them. The charge to which they 

 are amenable is this: By the force of 

 numbers, united to a notoriously pugna- 

 cious disposition, they drive away the few 

 birds that would feed upon the caterpillars. 

 Of these we know but 4 species, viz., the 

 robin, Baltimore oriole, black-billed and 

 yellow-billed cuckoos." 



In 522 sparrow stomachs, examined at 

 the Department of Agriculture, only 18 per 

 cent, contained insects, and the greater 

 part of these were innoxious species. 

 Many of these stomachs were from Wash- 

 ington at a time when the trees were suf- 

 fering from several insect defoliators, and 

 but 2 specimens were found to have been 

 eaten by the sparrows. Dr. C. V. Riley 

 says, "There can be no more eloquent 

 comment on the bird's uselessness in pro- 

 tecting vegetation from insect injury." 



It is only fair to say that the sparrow 

 does occasionally eat caterpillars when he 

 is hungry, and the young are fed largely 

 on insects, but insects form so small a 

 part of sparrow food that it by no means 

 balances our account with him. 



Briefly, then, the sparrow injures and 

 destroys fruit, grain, vegetables and orna- 

 mental plants, drives away beneficial na- 

 tive birds, and eats but few insects him- 

 self. 



The English sparrow is a curse of such 

 virulence that it ought to be systematically 

 attacked and destroyed before it becomes 

 necessary to deplete the public treasury for 

 the purpose, as has been done in other 

 countries. 



DEFENDS THE ORIOLE. 



ISIDOR S. TROSTLER. 



I'm "summat riled" at some of your 

 natural history correspondents who have 

 letters in November Recreation, and I 

 must "shout right out in meetin'." 



L. L. Bales, in his article on Alaska 

 ptarmigan, says the eggs of the rock ptar- 

 migan are pure white. I take issue with 

 him on that point, and refer to 2 good 

 authorities on American oology, O. O. 

 Davie and the late Capt. Charles E. Ben- 

 dire. I have a set of 9 rock ptarmigan 

 eggs and they are true to the descriptions 

 of the 2 authors mentioned. Eggs of the 

 rock ptarmigan have a ground color of 

 yellowish buff varying to a deep chestnut 



