556 _ ZOOLOGY. 
in length, the largest being about the size of the hive-bee. 
of these species lives as a parasite within the nests of some 
species. I have now, in my garden, hives of four of ours 
in which I have observed the construction of the combs, t 
f the eggs, etc., and I hope I wren soon be able to a 
of some more species. Some of our species are so elega k 
beautiful and so extremely intarsating, that they wold ea 108 
precious acquisition for zoological gardéns or large hot-house 
nor do I think that it would be very pia Ae bring them | 
Europe and there to preserve them in a living 
If it be of some interest to you I shall be aie tó give a 
time to T an oa of what I may observe in “ny i 
apiary. — Nat 
Tue European House Sparrow.—I regret very much that ke 
naturalist generally so well informed as Dr. Coues, sl ai 
giving what my own observations compel me to believe to bet 
altogether wrong statement in regard to the house sparrow, Pt 
lished in the July number of the Narurauist. Dr. Coues 
that he was prejudiced against the sparrow from the beginn 
He expected they would molest our native species ; he was always 
opposed to their introduction, and he is now apparently only t00 5 
glad to condemn them on the scantiest evidence. Isu 
this is too important a question to be thus dismissed, esp! 
by a gentleman like Dr. Coues, who has enjoyed no opportun ; 
of knowing from his own observations par the opinions 
so free to express are well founded or no 
The statement of Mr. Gentry I Sie discredit. Ido? 
lieve that the habits either of the house sparrow or of the 
blue-bird and our native sparrows are different in ae 
from what they are in Massachusetts. I believe that i a 
has befallen these birds in Pennsylvania, Mr. Gentry does 
sign the right cause and that the house sparrow is innocent. 
have the sparrows in Boston in great abundance, and el 
I have day after day, summer and winter, closely watched 
They never molest, attack, or tr y to drive away any bi 
their own species, and that only from amatory intencos, 1 
times the males are pugnacious against other males 0 
Species, but nothing more. “a 
The females are not at all pugnacious under any Cir 
In Boston the robin has never been so abundan 
summer, and the sparrows certainly never seem s0 
. 
