504 Ineligibility of the European House Sparrow. (August, 
birds eat in this country. I would, therefore, suggest the obvious 
propriety of finding out exactly, in the only proper and scientific. 
way, instead of sawing the air any longer in such futile way. I 
suggest, that, at the height of the insect season, at the time when 
the sparrows should be eating the bugs if they ever do, in some 
places fairly infested with the bugs, a sufficient number of spar- 
rows be killed and examined in respect to the contents of their 
crops. Let the authorities of any of our large cities, preferably 
Boston, where the birds are said to have done so much good, and 
where the sparrow combination talks loudest, furnish to proper 
persons, say five hundred sparrows, whose stomachs shall be 
examined by some competent botanist and entomologist together. 
If noxious insects should be found to form the greater portion, 
or even any considerable portion of the food of these birds, I 
would yield the case as far as this particular count is concerned. 
At present I continue to believe that the scraping and other occu- 
pation of the city-forestering Othellos is not gone. 
As to my recommendations: I am often asked, “ Would you 
then have sparrows exterminated ?” While I am not prepared to 
advise such an extreme measure as this, I do not hesitate to 
declare that prompt and stringent measures should be taken, as 
a matter of national economy, to check the increase of the birds. 
We have enough already. Without unnecessary cruelty, the 
numbers might be kept down, if not diminished, by the following 
gradually and continuously operating means :— 
I. Let the birds shift for themselves; turn them loose and put 
them on the same footing as other birds. That is, take down the 
boxes and all the special contrivances for sheltering and petting 
the birds; stop feeding them; stop supplying them with building 
materials; let them take care of themselves. 
II. Abolish the legal penalties for killing them, The birds are 
now under the arm of the law, which protects them from most O 
the natural vicissitudes of bird-life. Let the boys kill them if 
they wish; or let them be trapped and used as pigeons or glass 
balls are now used, in shooting matches among sportsmen. 
Vast numbers of pigeons are destroyed in this way ; there are 
even “sparrow-clubs” in various cities, which make a business of 
practicing on various of our small birds, for which the European 
~ sparrows would be an admirable substitute, answering all the con- 
ditions these marksmen could desire. In this way the birds a 
